stemdiagnostics welcome

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The StemDiagnostics FP6 Life Sciences project is co-funded by the European Commission for the development of next-generation of medical tests and tools for significantly improving the survival rate of patients undergoing haematopoietic stem cell transplant also known as HSCT - a medical treatment for life threatening conditions such as leukaemia and lymphoma. Over 7000 allogeneic HSCT are carried out in Europe each year. Whilst cure rates are improving, the overall patient survival rate remains low between 40% - 60%. The underpinning aim of the project is to improve patient survival rates by building upon advancements in proteomic and genetic technologies.

The Project is co-ordinated by Professor Anne Dickinson from Newcastle University, based in the North East of England, UK.

To help achieve the objective of the project, StemDiagnostics brings together a consortium of 13 leading European clinical research institutes and biotech firms comprised of internationally recognised participants with the core expertise in genomic and proteomic testing, diagnostic assay development and clinical research expertise in Graft Versus Host Disease (GvHD )with access to clinical samples and patient groups.

Over the next three years the project will focus on the roles of relevant genes and biomarkers associated with acute and chronic GvHD using retrospective samples from established biobanks in Europe and prospective clinical trials to:

  • Identify novel bio markers for diagnostics
  • Development of novel diagnostic tools using genomics, proteomics, in vitro bioassays and biochips Testing of the new diagnostics in animal models and on clinical samples Undertake comparative studies with an autoimmune disease model for inflammation – rheumatoid arthritis
  • Subsequently development of new diagnostics for use by medical practitioners to improve patient outcome

The scope of the project’s research activities comprise of four medical and diagnostic application objectives:

  1. Development of new diagnostic tests for prediction of GvHD prior to transplant
  2. Development of predictive diagnostic tools for identifying the time of onset of GvHD
  3. Development of predictive diagnostics tools for chronic GvHD and associated complications and autoimmune disease.
  4. Development and exploitation of protein biochips, monoclonal antibodies and enzyme linked immunoabsorbant assays (ELISA)

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