DIAMONDS

The project DIAMONDS will address the challenge of bringing personalised medicine into routine use in EU healthcare systems for diagnosis and treatment of common infectious and inflammatory diseases, which account for a up to a third of all medical encounters in primary care and hospital.

Since Hippocrates, the diagnostic process in clinical medicine has been based on recognition of a constellation of symptoms and clinical signs. However, a definitive diagnosis is made in only a minority of patients presenting to healthcare with suspected infection or inflammation. Genome-wide RNA-expression analyses (transcriptomics) have revealed that individual infectious and inflammatory diseases are characterised by unique patterns of RNA expression in blood.

We propose a new personalised approach to diagnosis and treatment using each individual’s transcriptomic “signature”. We will use RNA expression data from newly recruited patients and from our previous EU funded cohort studies to develop and validate a novel transcriptome-based diagnostic classification, which will guide patient management and improve patient safety.

In collaboration with SME and industrial partners, we evaluate alternative platforms for Personalised Multiclass Signature Diagnosis (PMSD), and we will develop a prototype device. We will test the device on samples from patients with common infectious and inflammatory conditions from 11 European countries and West Africa. In partnership with healthcare system leaders, professional bodies and patient support groups, we will develop a pilot demonstration of the PMSD device, evaluating the costs and benefits of the wider introduction of PMSD across Europe. We will evaluate accuracy, cost effectiveness, safety and impact on resources in healthcare settings and patient groups reflecting the diversity across Europe.

DIAMONDS is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 848196.