Paradise Consortium
Trinity College Dublin – Trinity Translational Medicine Institute / ADAPT centre
TTMI:
Amrita Dwivedi-Biomarker Assay Lead
Alan Kennedy-Biobank Manager
Arlena Carney-Research Assistant
Sarah Moran (University College York)-Biomarker Clinical Lead
ADAPT Centre:
David Selby (German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence – DFKI)
Jennifer Scott
Eithne Nic An Riogh
Arthur White
James Ng
Cathal Walsh
John Kelleher
Angel George D-Real -PhD Student
Matthieu Coq-Pre-processing lead
Yagmur Dogay
Declan O’Sullivan
Jamsheela Nazeer
Lucy Hederman
The Renal Inflammation Group is based in the Trinity Translational Medicine Institute and drives a translational medicine research programme focused on investigation of pathogenesis and discovery of biomarkers of disease in glomerulonephritis and in autoimmune disease more generally. Much of the research revolves around the RITA-Ireland registry and biobank, one of the largest such bioresources in the world.
The group is linked to the Chronic Disease Informatics Group in the ADAPT SFI centre, which is interested in the application of novel statistical and semantic web approaches to create deep phenotyping platforms for the study of chronic disease. The group brings together scientists from the disciplines of medicine, immunology, environmental science, statistics and computer science. In particular, the group is concerned with better stratifying the patient-level risk associated with flares of ANCA-associated vasculitis.
Role in the project:
TCD is the coordinator of PARADISE and supports 2 scientific work packages: WP1 and 2. The RITA-Ireland vasculitis registry and biobank is the primary data and sample store for PARADISE. Samples derived from this bioresource, and from other international cohorts, will be assayed in the TTMI lab. Harmonisation of data across the various data streams and international cohorts will be undertaken by ADAPT-TCD, so that a clean, consolidated, semantically interoperable dataset is available for analysis by the Freiburg group.
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Elisa Pin-Researcher
KTH Royal Institute of Technology is the largest technical university in Sweden. Peter Nilsson´s Lab is part of the Department of Protein Science and SciLifeLab. The group´s focus is on developing and applying affinity proteomics technology for biomarker discovery and validation mainly within neuroproteomics and autoimmunity and serology profiling. This is enabled through various types of protein microarray formats utilising protein fragments and antibodies from the Human Protein Atlas. Elisa Pin, researcher within Nilsson Lab, is the PI for KTH in the PARADISE project.
Role in the project:
KTH will apply their well-established protein array technologies and workflow to validate and extend an existing core autoantibody set that separates ANCA-associated vasculitis patients who remained in long-term remission (LTROT) from those who subsequently suffered relapses. A clinically deployable ELISA kit that incorporates the key novel autoantibodies will be developed by KTH in collaboration Firalis.
Institute of Medical Biometry and Statistics, Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center – University of Freiburg, Germany
Moritz Hess-Responsible of the Statistical Modeling
Prof Harald Binder-Head of the Institute of Medical Biometry and Statistics (IMBI)
Maren Hackenberg
The Institute of Medical Biometry and Statistics (IMBI) hosts a wide range of expertise, including mathematical modelling, applied statistics, and bioinformatics. Besides methods development, the institute provides expertise to subject matter projects, either through consulting or joint collaborative projects. The general research focus of Prof. Binder is on machine learning for biomedical applications, with emphasis on combining approaches for dynamic modeling with dimension reduction techniques such as deep generative models, for integrating molecular measurements and linking them to phenotypes and clinical endpoints.
In WP4, we develop and refine approaches based on explainable AI, machine-learning and advanced statistics for modelling the multi-modal longitudinal data as provided by work-packages WP1, WP2 and WP3. The resulting prediction model, which will be fully explainable, will be implemented into a physician facing prediction tool.
Firalis S.A.
Stéphanie Boutillier-Global Lead
Hüseyin Firat-CEO
Céline Meyer-Project Manager
Firalis is a French biotechnology company, founded in 2008 and specialized in biomarker R&D and developing precision medicine tools in various fields. Firalis also provides a comprehensive range of biomarker services; supports biomarker discovery, validation, evaluation, and qualification activities in clinical settings. Thanks to our experienced team and cutting-edge laboratory equipment, we develop and deliver solutions for biomarker assays customized to clients’ projects. Firalis contributed to numerous consortia and conducted specifically designed clinical studies for biomarker qualification such as CardioSAVE, HeartLinc, ADDIA, RabioPred, Pacific, and CoviRNA. Our partnerships with the pharma industry have resulted in a high sense of quality and reliability in the data we deliver. Firalis is certified ISO 13485 for the development of CE-marked assays, NFS96 900 for its biobank and accredited ISO17025 for testing activities.
Role in the project:
Firalis provides transcriptomic expertise and data from their in-house BIOPRED pipeline and lead on regulatory and future development planning and therefore involved in WP2 and WP6. The WP2 will be defined by new biomarker development and will rely on the BIOPRED transcriptomic assay. The WP6 is about communication, dissemination and exploitation. Algorithms developed in the project forming the basis for physician support tools will be assessed by an IP working group chaired by Firalis for potential exploitation. This group will also lead on positioning the technology for future clinical use, including regulatory aspects, and to map out the subsequent steps and clinical trials required to ensure successful translation to mainstream clinical use. Firalis will also be responsible for the project website and social media aimed at the general public. This work is complemented by the workshops delivered in WP4, which also communicate the project and its results to patients, clinicians and other stakeholders.
The European Institute for Innovation through Health Data
Dipak Kalra, President of the The European Institute for Innovation Through Health Data AISBL
Nathan Lea-DPO & Information Governance Lead
Geert Thienpont-Managing Director
i~HD (www.i-hd.eu) is a not for profit institute registered in Belgium. It is a membership-based organisation with members from pharma, healthcare providers, academic organisations, and works closely with patient organisations, healthcare payers, the health ICT sector and standards development organisations. i~HD develops methods, solutions and services that can maximise multi-stakeholder value obtained from health data, to support innovations in health, health care and knowledge discovery, while ensuring compliance with privacy protection. It collates, develops and supports adoption of best practices in information governance, GDPR compliance, data quality assessment and improvement, data management including FAIR metadata specifications, and data sharing terms and agreements. It assesses and reviews the implications of new and forthcoming legislative changes and guidance for health data driven innovation and their interplay with existing regulatory provisions. i~HD has staff with experience of leading or being a partner in over 100 EC projects.
Role in the project:
i~HD leads a PARADISE workpackage focused on patient engagement and ethics, working with several partners including patient organisation (VIA). Its main focus is the ethical and transparent development of artificial intelligence within the project, ensuring that the technical R&D pathway conforms to European ethical principles and the recent European AI Act. Through this work it will develop a “transparency front sheet“ for AI implementations that provide details that a decision maker considering adoption or use (including patients) needs to have in order to understand what the AI does, the basis on which it has been developed and why it should be considered trustworthy, reliable and safe.
Vasculitis Ireland Awareness (VIA)
Julie Power-Director/ Chair of VIA
Dr Margaret Dunne-Dept Applied Science, TU Dublin Tallaght
Support group run by those living with Vasculitis for those living with Vasculitis in the island of Ireland. We aim to provide support, raise awareness, improve care and management by working closely with other patient organisations, clinicians, researchers, and policy makers. We are part of ERN RITA and Vasculitis International.
Role in the project:
We will be an integral part of the PPI team, ensuring the patient and public perspective is taken into consideration throughout the project. Our role will be ensuring transparency and meaningful outputs in this novel approach for both clinicians and patients. Our involvement in the design and implementation of the project will increase usability and transfer of knowledge for other conditions.
Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Bellvitge (IDIBELL)
Juliana Bordignon Draibe-Consultant in Nephrology and Research Doctor
Laura Martinez Valenzuela-Medical and Research Doctor
Paula Antón Pàmpols-Medical and Research Doctor Antonella Gugliotti – Clinical Research Assistant
The Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) is a research center in biomedicine promoted by the Bellvitge University Hospital and the Viladecans Hospital, both from the Catalan Health Institute, the Catalan Institute of Oncology, University of Barcelona and L’Hospitalet de Llobregat city council. In 2017, the Center for Regenerative Medicine of Barcelona (CMR[B]), now part of IDIBELL, launched the Program for Advancing the Clinical Translation of Regenerative Medicine of Catalonia (P-CMR[C]) together with IDIBELL.
IDIBELL research is focused in cancer, neuroscience, translational medicine and regenerative medicine. Research, innovation and society are the axes on which researchers work every day with the goal of improving the quality of life of citizens.
IDIBELL is located in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, south of Barcelona. It is a CERCA Centre from the Catalan Government and a member of the Campus of International Excellence of the University of Barcelona (HUBc). In 2009, it became one of the first five Spanish research centers accredited as a health research institute by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III. In 2015, the European Commission recognized IDIBELL with the ‘HR Excellence in Research’ award, which identifies IDIBELL as a provider and supporter of a stimulating research work environment.
Role in the project:
IDIBELL will work as a validation cohort in the consortium. Juliana Draibe is a nephrologist consultant, specialized in ANCA Vasculitis.She is also a PI in the Nephrology and Renal Transplantament research group in IDIBELL; her research focused in serum, urine and cellular biomarkers in ANCA vasculitis. She is in charge of Vasculitis HUB-IDIBELL Biobank samples, with more than 100 patients included and is the responsible of FAIRVASC registry implementation in Spain.
Catholic University of Croatia
Anto Čartolovni, Assistant Professor & Research group leader
Anamaria Malešević, PhD Student
The Digital Healthcare Ethics Laboratory (Digit-HeaL) is a research unit of the Catholic University of Croatia engaged in the analysis of ethical, social and legal aspects of digital technology use in healthcare (i.e. Big data, artificial intelligence, etc.). The Digit-HeaL laboratory brings together an interdisciplinary research group to contribute to constructive ethical reflections and social analyses. The primary objective of the research group is to further the responsible innovation, development and implementation of digital technologies in healthcare.
Role in the project:
Our primary role is to facilitate the implementation of patient and public involvement (PPI) across all project stages by leading a PPI team. Furthermore, we will be engaged in the WP5, where we will help to steer the design & development process of the new ‘’physician-facing tool’’ by providing useful feedback during technical and plausibility testing.
