Landmark publication presents the most complete immunological profile in early rheumatoid arthritis to date

Published in Nature Scientific Data, the RA-MAP consortium study offers a vast resource of data and samples for further research into rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an immune-mediated inflammatory disease (IMID) that clinically manifests in the joints, but is systemic in impact. Early and intensive treatment is a critical determinant of long-term outcome, although clinical remission remains a minority outcome and sustained drug-free remission remains rare.

The RA-MAP Consortium is a UK industry-academic precision medicine partnership funded by the Medical Research Council and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI). RA-MAP’s goals are to investigate clinical and biological predictors of disease outcome and treatment response in RA, using deep clinical and multi-omic phenotyping.

Professor John Isaacs, Theme Lead for the BRC’s Musculoskeletal Theme and member of the RA-MAP Consortium comments:

There is no doubt that RA-MAP was, and continues to be, a landmark study focussed on the immune ‘state’ in people with rheumatoid arthritis.  It generated more than 56.5 million datapoints and a large number of RA-MAP biological samples.  Nonetheless, the impact of the work is related more to the collaborations forged, and availability of data and samples to partners but also to the community at large.

Read the publication here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-022-01264-y