Twinning for Promoting Excellence, Ability and Knowledge to develop novel approaches for targeting inflammatory and degenerative age-related joint diseases

TWINFLAG is an advanced research consortium consisting of top-class institutions in the field of extracellular vesicles (EVs), flow cytometry and biobanking.

The main objective of TWINFLag is to improve capacities of IMC in Lithuania, to implement the excellence in translational research of arthritis treatment and extracellular vesicle (EV)-based biomarker development, innovation and research management.

For this purpose, the consortium gathered leading academic institutions in the field of biomedical sciences from Ireland (UCD) and Spain (INIBIC) which will seek to raise the research profile of IMC.

The consortium partners will share their knowledge during organized schools, short term visits and seminars, will implement a small scale research for a personalized therapeutic approach focusing on major research interests of IMC – degenerative and inflammatory arthritis.

Currently available tools for the disease-modifying therapy of both rheumatoid and osteo- arthritis are not satisfactory, which is highly associated with the lack of specific and sensitive disease biomarkers.

The need for the application specific disease biomarkers has been emphasized as they increase the success rate of drug development programmes and thereby accelerate the availability of new therapeutics.

Partnerships that provide access to tissue banks, data, cell lines, biomarkers, patients and funding are essential for the development of novel therapeutics.

Therefore, this three partner consortium identified the demand to develop an innovative joint-research strategy comprising application of novel therapeutics for arthritis, associated with the development of precision biomarkers for monitoring the efficacy of this treatment.

The results of this project will contribute to increased attractiveness of IMC, retention of research talents and mobilization of national and European resources for strategic investments, as well as foster networking and business ideas.