How do our genes influence chronic inflammatory diseases?

Coordinators: D. Ellinghaus (CAU), I. König (UzL)

People with the same chronic inflammatory disease can develop very different symptoms, disease courses and responses to treatment. Genetics is one important reason for these differences, but genes do not act in isolation.

RTF-I investigates how genetic variation, together with other biological characteristics such as immune responses, metabolism and the microbiome, shapes patients' clinical characteristics. By combining genetic data with molecular and clinical information from large PMI patient cohorts and biobanks, we aim to identify biological patterns across many clinical traits that distinguish different forms of chronic inflammation.

This could help explain why certain diseases and complications occur together and why patients respond differently to treatment. In the long term, the findings could also contribute to pharmacogenomic tools that use genetic information to support individual treatment decisions.