• The EU project ComplexDis (http://www.complexdis.org.gu.se/) aims to develop methods to find markers for personalized medication in complex diseases. Seasonal allergic rhinitis is used as a disease model. Allergen-challenged CD4 + cells are examined with high-throughput techniques and the data subjected to network-based analysis. Candidate diagnostic markers are tested in clinical studies of SAR. The bioinformatic methods will be made freely available on the Internet. The project which has a budget of 1.8 million Euro involves three pediatric allergists from Italy, Hungary and Sweden and experts in genomics, bioinformatics, modeling, computer science and systems biology from Spain, Italy, Belgium, Norway and the US.

• Sens-it-iv, the acronym for “Novel Testing Strategies for In Vitro Assessment of Allergens” is an EU funded consortium within the 6th framework, consisting of 28 European universities, institutes, companies and organizations which aims to design a human cell-based assay to test the propensity of new chemicals and proteins used by the e.g. the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries to cause allergy (www.sens-it-iv.eu). The test system will be based on in vivo-like human epithelial and DC lines, cultured together to mimic the environment in lung or skin, and will hopefully reduce the need for animal experiments. Mechanisms for allergen recognition and markers involved will be identified with functional genomics, proteomics and metabolomics. All data generated are collected in an inductive database allowing queries for data patterns and predictive models, which will be freely available after project completion.

Important relevant research centers across Europe

To be announced. Please send information about your center to professor Lars Olaf Cardell (Lars-Olaf.Cardell@ki.se).