New Insights into Immune Dysfunction in Children
24th March 2020
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DIAMONDS – Diagnosis and Management of Febrile Illness using RNA Personalised Molecular Signature Diagnosis – is a five-year collaborative, multi-partnered research project that will develop a new molecular diagnostic test to provide rapid diagnosis of common infectious bacterial disease, as well as viral and inflammatory diseases. It involves an international, multi-disciplinary team of researchers and scientists from across 28 institutions and 13 countries with 11 of those countries from Europe.
Research funding, totalling €22.5 million over five years, is provided by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
Common infectious and inflammatory diseases account for up to a third of all unplanned hospital and primary care attendances. Currently, if a patient is admitted to hospital with a fever and non-specific symptoms, they could go through a whole series of investigations, such as blood tests, spinal fluid samples, MRI and CT scans, while medics try to identify the cause. These tests can be uncomfortable, expensive and take a long time to get results.
A patient could be waiting days or even weeks before they receive an accurate diagnosis and during this time the treatment could have been delayed or even incorrect. Treating with antibiotics for example, as a precautionary measure against serious bacterial infections, would have no effect if the real diagnosis is a self-resolving viral infection. All this puts a huge strain on the patient and the healthcare system.
Building on over a decade of research into the pattern of genes switched on and off in the blood in different conditions, the DIAMONDS team will make diagnosis faster and more accurate.
Read more...In partnership with researchers and scientists from 11 EU countries and 2 Asia-Pacific countries, the DIAMONDS partners span 22 hospitals and biotechnology groups in academia, SMEs and industry.
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This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 848196