Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system for which no cure is currently available. It is the leading cause of non-traumatic disabling neurological disease in young adults with more than 500,000 people affected in Europe. As chronic inflammatory processes drive the neurodegeneration, we hypothesize that improved clinical outcome can be achieved by restoring the balance between inflammation and the remaining capacity of neuronal self-renewal. In this context, cell therapy that specifically targets the damaging immune reactions that cause MS, thereby reducing the autoreactive, inflammatory assaults in MS without affecting protective immunity against pathogens and cancer, can be a promising approach to allow for more repair. Recently, we set-up a collaborative network of European centers working in cell therapy (COST Action BM1305). From this, a multidisciplinary team from four different EU countries (B, ES, NL and GER) with two additional partners now aims to safely reach the next level of testing and joins efforts to bring antigen-specific cell therapy for MS to the clinic. Our objectives are to evaluate safety, clinical practicality and demonstrate first proof-of-principle of therapeutic efficacy of antigen-specific tolerance-inducing dendritic cells (tolDC) in MS patients in two single-center clinical trials. All regulatory approvals are already in place. Coordinated patient monitoring and centralized MRI monitoring, including radiological correlates of neurodegeneration, and immunomonitoring will enable us to directly compare results between trials and enable consented biobanking, data safeguarding and accessibility to support future efforts in the field of MS therapy. ReSToRe focuses on the advancement of an innovative cell therapy approach with the potential to improve the lives of patients suffering from MS, a currently untreatable disease. This would represent a breakthrough for healthcare in MS.

The European Brain Council (EBC) has recommended the disorders of the brain to be prioritised for funding. The purpose of this ChildBrain ETN is 1) to train young scientists, Early Stage Researchers (ESRs), to utilise evidence-based neuroscientific knowledge for helping children, especially those at high risk for dropout due to neurocognitive disorders, to meet future educational and societal demands. The network aims 2) to develop new, innovative brain imaging-based tools through research and industry to be applied by researchers and clinical sector end users for 3) increasing understanding and improving diagnosis and treatment of neurocognitive disorders, as well as enhancing targeted educational programs. To accomplish these goals, we aim 4) to form a cross-disciplinary and trans-sectorial European network of experts. Three research and two training work packages (WPs) are planned to reach these goals. The Childhood neurodevelopmental disorders WP comprises new research and training on the neural underpinnings of dyslexia, ADHD, epilepsy, and hearing loss and creates links to healthcare industry and special education. The Brain development WP will focus on understanding the systems-level brain development at the level of the individual child. The Brain research methods WP will develop new multi-modal data analysis methodologies that are essential for children and will also further brain research in adults. The academic, industrial and private sector partners will work across these themes, offering the ESRs project-specific collaboration, secondments, workshops, summer school and courses on scientific, transferable and entrepreneurial skills, as well as supervision. The ChildBrain ETN will produce a new generation of scientists with the theoretical, technological, and entrepreneurial skills necessary for making breakthroughs in the understanding of brain development and childhood neurocognitive disorders.

EuroPOND will develop a data-driven statistical and computational modeling framework for neurological disease progression. This will enable major advances in differential and personalized diagnosis, prognosis, monitoring, and treatment and care decisions, positioning Europe as world leaders in one of the biggest societal challenges of 21st century healthcare. The inherent complexity of neurological disease, the overlap of symptoms and pathologies, and the high comorbidity rate suggests a systems medicine approach, which matches the specific challenge of this call. We take a uniquely holistic approach that, in the spirit of systems medicine, integrates a variety of clinical and biomedical research data including risk factors, biomarkers, and interactions. Our consortium has a multidisciplinary balance of essential expertise in mathematical/statistical/computational modelling; clinical, biomedical and epidemiological expertise; and access to a diverse range of datasets for sporadic and well-phenotyped disease types. The project will devise and implement, as open-source software tools, advanced statistical and computational techniques for reconstructing long-term temporal evolution of disease markers from cross-sectional or short-term longitudinal data. We will apply the techniques to generate new and uniquely detailed pictures of a range of important diseases. This will support the development of new evidence-based treatments in Europe through deeper disease understanding, better patient stratification for clinical trials, and improved accuracy of diagnosis and prognosis. For example, Alzheimer’s disease alone costs European citizens around €200B every year in care and loss of productivity. No disease modifying treatments are yet available. Clinical trials repeatedly fail because disease heterogeneity prevents bulk response. Our models enable fine stratification into phenotypes enabling more focussed analysis to identify subgroups that respond to putative treatments.