Introduction

Immune-mediated diseases (IMDs) are increasing rapidly in the developed countries, constituting a huge medical, economic and societal challenge. The reasons to this epidemic are not known, but exposome needs to play an important role since genetic factors cannot explain such a rapid change. In the HEDIMED project altogether 22 academic and industrial partners will join their multidisciplinary and supplementary forces to identify exposomic determinants which are driving this epidemic. The project is based on a combination of data and biological samples from large clinical cohorts. The HEDIMED consortium focuses on common chronic IMDs that cause a significant disease burden, including type 1 diabetes (T1D), celiac disease (CD), IgE-mediated allergic sensitisation and asthma, in which the exposomic influence is believed to be strong.

Project Objectives

HEDIMED project will address the interactions between external and internal exposomes to identify pathways that are critical for the development of IMDs. The study is based on a multidisciplinary approach combining modern omics technologies, multiplex assay technologies and intelligent sensoring with unique samples and data from dynamic birth cohorts, clinical exposomic intervention trials and cell and organoid cultures, land cover, air quality and reflectance data from earth observation satellites, and advanced data mining platforms and the modelling of economic impacts of exposomic determinants of IMDs.

The project will run during years 2020-2024 and it receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme, as well as from the participating organizations.