Improving European healthcare through cell-based interceptive medicine


Date:
September 7, 2020
Source:
Max Delbru"ck Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz
Association
Summary:
Hundreds of innovators, research pioneers, clinicians, industry
leaders and policy makers from all around Europe are united by a
vision of how to revolutionize healthcare. Scientists now present
a detailed roadmap of how to leverage the latest scientific
breakthroughs and technologies over the next decade, to track,
understand and treat human cells throughout an individual's
lifetime.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Hundreds of innovators, research pioneers, clinicians, industry leaders
and policy makers from all around Europe are united by a vision of how
to revolutionize healthcare. In two publications -- a perspective article
in the journal Nature and the LifeTime Strategic Research Agenda -- they
now present a detailed roadmap of how to leverage the latest scientific breakthroughs and technologies over the next decade, to track, understand
and treat human cells throughout an individual's lifetime.


==========================================================================
The LifeTime initiative, co-coordinated by the Max Delbrueck Center
of Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) in Berlin
and the Institut Curie in Paris, has developed a strategy to advance personalized treatment for five major disease classes: cancer,
neurological, infectious, chronic inflammatory and cardiovascular
diseases. The aim is a new age of personalized, cell-based interceptive medicine for Europe with the potential of improved health outcomes
and more cost-effective treatment, resulting in profoundly changing a
person's healthcare experience.

Earlier detection and more effective treatment of diseases To form a functioning, healthy body, our cells follow developmental paths during
which they acquire specific roles in tissues and organs. But when they
deviate from their healthy course, they accumulate changes leading to
disease which remain undetected until symptoms appear. At this point,
medical treatment is often invasive, expensive and inefficient. However,
now we have the technologies to capture the molecular makeup of individual cells and to detect the emergence of disease or therapy resistance
much earlier.

Using breakthrough single-cell and imaging technologies in combination
with artificial intelligence and personalized disease models will allow
us to not only predict disease onset earlier, but also to select the most effective therapies for individual patients. Targeting disease-causing
cells to intercept disorders before irreparable damage occurs will substantially improve the outlook for many patients and has the potential
of saving billions of Euros of disease-related costs in Europe.

A detailed roadmap for implementing LifeTime The perspective article "The LifeTime initiative and the future of cell-based interceptive medicine in Europe" and the LifeTime Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) explain how these technologies should be rapidly co-developed, transitioned into clinical settings and applied to the five major disease areas. Close interactions between European infrastructures, research institutions, hospitals and
industry will be essential to generate, share and analyze LifeTime's big medical data across European borders. The initiative's vision advocates ethically responsible research to benefit citizens all across Europe.

According to Professor Nikolaus Rajewsky, scientific director of the
Berlin Institute for Medical System Biology at the Max Delbrueck Center
for Molecular Medicine and coordinator of the LifeTime Initiative, the
LifeTime approach is the way into the future: "LifeTime has brought
together scientists across fields -- from biologists, to clinicians,
data scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and physicists NOT- to
enable a much improved understanding of molecular mechanisms driving
health and disease. Cell-based medicine will allow doctors to diagnose
diseases earlier and intercept disorders before irreparable damage
has occurred. LifeTime has a unique value proposition that promises
to improve the European patient's health." Dr. Genevie`ve Almouzni,
director of research at CNRS, honorary director of the research center
from Institut Curie in Paris and co-coordinator of the LifeTime Initiative believes that the future with LifeTime offers major social and economic
impact: "By implementing interceptive, cell-based medicine we will be
able to considerably improve treatment across many diseases. Patients
all over the world will be able to lead longer, healthier lives. The
economic impact could be tremendous with billions of Euros saved from productivity gains simply for cancer, and significantly shortened ICU
stays for Covid-19. We hope EU leaders will realize we have to invest
in the necessary research now."

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Max_Delbru"ck_Center_for_Molecular_Medicine_in_the
Helmholtz_Association. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal References:
1. Rajewsky, Nikolaus et al. The LifeTime initiative and the future
of cell-
based interceptive medicine in Europe. Nature, 2020 DOI:
10.1038/s41586- 020-2715-9
2. Maria‐Elena Torres‐Padilla, Annelien L Bredenoord,
Karin R
Jongsma, Astrid Lunkes, Luca Marelli, Ines Pinheiro, Giuseppe Testa.

Thinking "ethical" when designing an international,
cross‐disciplinary biomedical research consortium. EMBO
Journal, 2020 DOI: 10.15252/embj.2020105725 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200907112323.htm

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