ERC funding: Innovative treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases

FAU research team acquires Proof of Concept Grant

A team of researchers led by Prof. Dr. Andreas Ramming from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) has developed a new approach to treating chronic inflammatory diseases. On the basis of promising results, the team has now been granted another prestigious research prize from the European Research Council (ERC): a Proof of Concept Grant for conducting an initial study in preparation for using the treatment on patients.

Diseases like rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and spondylarthritis (SpA) pose a considerable challenge to the health care system. Treatment often requires lifelong management, as typical treatments only have a limited effectiveness. The latest research from Professor Ramming’s team (Department of Medicine 3 at Universitätsklinikum Erlangen) has shown promising approaches for surmounting these obstacles. The research has been funded over recent years by the European Research Council (ERC Starting Grant) and the German Research Foundation (DFG; CRC 1181 “Checkpoints for inflammation”; speaker: Prof. Dr. Georg Schett) and the findings have been published in prestigious journals, most recently in Nature Immunology.

“Our concept uses natural mechanisms to resolve inflammation, tackles inflammation at source and may by significantly more effective than traditional anti-cytokine therapies,” explains Prof. Ramming.

The new approach avoids general immune suppression and thereby minimizes the risk of infection by maintaining the body’s acute inflammatory reaction. This development offers the promise of a new class of precise and effective drugs for chronic inflammatory diseases and by adjusting treatment according to the complex pathophysiology of inflammation may revolutionize results for patients.

Further information:

Prof. Dr. Andreas Ramming
andreas.ramming@uk-erlangen.de