Britta Siegmund: “Our disease-specific analyses have gone beyond the theoretical; they’ve led to real action”
DocTIS is an ambitious, multicentric research initiative bringing together top-tier biomedical institutions from across Spain, Italy, Germany, the UK, and the USA. The project’s goal is nothing short of transformative: to improve treatment efficacy for six major immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs): Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, psoriasis, and psoriatic arthritis.
At the heart of this collaborative effort is a focus on both understanding the underlying mechanisms of these diseases and translating this knowledge into actionable clinical strategies. Among the institutions playing a key role is Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, one of Europe’s largest and most renowned university hospitals. Within DocTIS, Charité contributes significantly to areas such as patient selection, as well as the preclinical and clinical validation of novel combinatorial therapies.
Leading the Charité team is Professor Britta Siegmund, a prominent gastroenterologist and the Director of the Department of Gastroenterology, Infectious Diseases and Rheumatology. With an extensive background in clinical and translational research on inflammatory diseases, she brings both expertise and vision to the DocTIS consortium.
We spoke with Professor Siegmund to learn more about her work, her involvement in DocTIS, and what the project could mean for the future of IMID care.
Hello, Britta! Please, tell us about yourself.
Hello! I’m Britta Siegmund, a gastroenterologist by training. I studied medicine in Munich and pursued both my scientific and medical education in Munich, Denver, and later in Berlin. My department focuses on a deeper understanding of inflammatory diseases, particularly inflammatory bowel diseases. We take a multidisciplinary approach, not just in research, but also in patient care. For example, our inflammation clinic allows patients to be seen jointly by a rheumatologist, a gastroenterologist, and a dermatologist.
In terms of research, I co-lead the Collaborative Research Center TRR 241 on IBD with Christoph Becker. Additionally, I’m part of the leadership team, alongside Andreas Diefenbach and Nikolaus Rajewsky, for a new Cluster of Excellence, ImmunoPreCept, which will launch next year. This initiative will focus on health-maintaining mechanisms and early interception of disease, topics that closely align with the goals of DocTIS.
What initially drew you to the DocTIS project?
To truly understand how extraintestinal manifestations arise, and to disentangle the joint and distinct mechanisms behind different inflammatory diseases, we need collaborative projects like DocTIS. It’s not something that can be tackled in isolation. The broad expertise and data-sharing environment of DocTIS make it an ideal platform for this type of complex research.
What role does your organization play in the DocTIS project?
At Charité, our team mainly provides consultation on both experimental and clinical data. This builds on our longstanding experience in translational approaches to inflammatory diseases. We aim to bridge the gap between lab research and real-world patient outcomes.
Regarding your initial expectations, how has the project developed?
When we first joined the project, I saw the ambition to reach a clinical trial stage as quite bold, but now it’s becoming reality. That in itself is a significant achievement. It shows that the project’s structure and collaborative framework have worked effectively to reach meaningful, clinical endpoints.
What results from the DocTIS project have been most satisfying for you?
What’s most gratifying is that our disease-specific analyses have gone beyond the theoretical, they’ve led to real action. The fact that all this work is culminating in a clinical trial feels like a full-circle moment. It’s a true example of successful translation from bench to bedside.
The clinical trials will be starting very soon. What are your expectations?
Based on the data, the disease signatures for rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis were the most distinct, which makes the decision to focus the trial on these diseases both logical and grounded in evidence. Personally, it’s not about which diseases were chosen, but rather about validating the overarching concept. If that holds true, it will have implications far beyond these specific conditions.
How do you think DocTIS could help improve the quality of life for IMID patients in Europe?
If DocTIS succeeds in its goal, it will allow us to tailor treatment strategies more precisely to the individual characteristics of each disease, and ideally, each patient. That would make a big difference in how we manage these conditions and could eventually be applied to a broader range of inflammatory diseases. It would not only improve outcomes but also streamline decision-making in clinical settings.
What key learnings do you take from the DocTIS collaboration?
One of the most valuable aspects has been the multidisciplinary discussions around the data. Different fields naturally prioritize different aspects, so having everyone (clinicians, lab researchers, bioinformaticians, and trial specialists) at the same table ensures nothing gets overlooked. That level of collaboration is rare and has been a real strength of this project.
What are your hopes for the future of DocTIS and IMID therapies?
My hope is that the data and pathways we’ve developed through DocTIS prove successful and set a template for future research and therapy development. Of course, we’ll likely need to refine our approaches as we go forward. But what matters most is that we’ve taken this first, crucial step.
As Professor Siegmund’s insights illustrate, the success of DocTIS lies in its collaborative foundation and shared commitment to innovation. The project brings together partners from both the public and private sectors, each offering specialized expertise to address the complex biomedical challenges posed by immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. Coordinated by the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), the DocTIS consortium includes Cardiff University, the University of Verona, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), the National Center for Genomic Analysis (CNAG), IMIDomics Inc., HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, and Zabala Innovation.
