Relive the DocTIS webinar: “Discovery of combination therapies for Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Diseases”

In February 2025, the DocTIS project hosted an insightful webinar during one of its General Assemblies, marking a key milestone as the initiative enters its final year. This session provided an in-depth look into the project’s groundbreaking efforts to enhance treatment strategies for immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs).

About the DocTIS project

The DocTIS project is a European Union-funded initiative dedicated to identifying more effective therapies for IMIDs. The diseases in focus include:

• Ulcerative colitis
• Crohn’s disease
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Systemic lupus erythematosus
• Psoriasis
• Psoriatic arthritis

Through the use of well-characterized patient data, high-quality biological samples, multi-omics data generation, and systems biology approaches, the project aims to uncover combinations of targeted existing drugs that can more effectively block chronic inflammation than current single-drug treatments.

Key highlights from the webinar

The “Discovery of combination therapies for Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Diseases” webinar featured leading researchers from the DocTIS Consortium, each offering critical insights into the project’s progress and findings. The panel included:

• Dr. Sara Marsal (Head of the Rheumatology Service at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, principal researcher at the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) and Coordinator of the DocTIS project) – Provided an introduction to the project, its scope, and objectives.
• Dr. Maria López Lasanta (Head of early Rheumatoid Arthritis Unit, Vall d’Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus) – Described the clinical features of IMID-Biobank patients in Work Package 3 (Patient Selection).
• Dr. Holger Heyn (Single Cell Genomics Group Leader, CNAG) – Discussed molecular data generation from IMID Biobank patients in Work Package 4.
• Dr. Antonio Julià (Head of Rheumatology Research Group, Vall d’Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus) – Presented findings on the systems biology analysis for combinatorial drug identification performed in Work Package 5.
• Dr. Pere Santamaria (Pathogenesis and Treatment of Autoimmunity Research Group Leader, IDIBAPS) – Explained the preclinical validation of combinatorial therapies in different animal models in Work Package 6.
• Dr. Ernest Choy (Professor and Head of Rheumatology, Cardiff University) – Highlighted the design of the clinical study validation of combinatorial therapies in Work Package 8.

These expert insights shed light on the key aspects of the DocTIS project and the significant progress made in its research. Importantly, the webinar took place just weeks before the launch of the much-anticipated clinical trial, which aims to confirm the promising results achieved over the past five years.

Watch the webinar

For those who missed the live session, the full webinar is now available to watch. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of DocTIS and its potential to revolutionize IMID treatments.