PROMISE: Personalized Therapy for Immune-linked Disorders

Some people are born with defects in the immune system, making them more likely to get frequent infections or develop conditions like cancer or autoimmune diseases, where the body attacks itself by mistake. These defects are usually genetic which means that the disorder is caused by genetic mutation usually present from birth. This can lead to serious health issues if not diagnosed and treated early. Scientists have found more than 450 genes related to these immune issues. These genes offer insights into complex autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. A disorder of the immune system can be caused by a mutation in just one of these genes. This has facilitated the development of personalized medicine approaches in which therapies are tailored on the basis of patient-specific genetic defects. The PROMISE initiative aims to expand these individualized treatment strategies to patients with more genetically complex inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. By comparing comprehensive biological data from different patients, PROMISE seeks to identify patterns and repurpose existing drugs to improve treatment outcomes. The consortium behind PROMISE consists of experts in clinical science, epigenetics, bioinformatics, and diagnostics. They plan to use existing collections of biological data as well as generate new data that will contribute to the understanding of the complex mechanisms that take place in people with genetic defects in the immune system. These datasets encompass various types of information, each focusing on a different aspect of biology such as which cells and genes are active at a given disease state, or how a cell responds to different treatment conditions. These datasets can reveal detailed information about disease mechanisms, potential biomarkers for diagnosis, and targets for new drugs. PROMISE aims to harness this information to create better, personalized treatments for people dealing with more complex immune-related diseases such as chronic inflammation and autoimmune disorders.