Development of a biomarker to predict the need for biologic therapy at the time of Rheumatoid Arthritis Diagnosis. (360G-Wellcome-109705_Z_15_Z)

Development of a biomarker to predict the need for biologic therapy at the time of Rheumatoid Arthritis DiagnosisOf the 400,000 patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis in the UK, only 10% become eligible for a disease-modifying biologic therapy after delays of a year or more. About a third of these patients remain refractory for such therapy following their diagnosis. Delaying effective therapy reduces the chances of a patient ever achieving clinical remission and increases their risk of long-term joint damage. Dr Mohini Gray and colleagues at the University of Edinburgh have discovered a predictive biomarker that can identify these patients at diagnosis, allowing for the rapid transition to effective biologic therapy.Utilising Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), of peripheral blood B cells, Gray and her team will develop this predictive biomarker, to rapidly identify refractory patients. With Pathfinder funding the team will validate the assay using larger independent cohorts of patients. In addition, the assay will be simplified to test applicability to a real-life clinical setting.