Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease, which has an enormous impact on a person's quality-of-life. Although there is currently a wide range of approved drugs with different targets, there are insufficient markers to identify the best choice for a particular patient. This often means that treatment strategies are ineffective, time-consuming, expensive and, above all, burdensome for the patients. The SQUEEZE consortium, comprising leading academic centres with world-class translational and clinical research expertise together with patients and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), is conducting a collaborative programme to improve the benefits and safety of approved disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) by establishing and advancing the clinical application of biomarkers. In our joint project, the researchers are using models from data science, clinical trials, translational science, and behavioural science to improve the ability to select the drug with the highest probability of success for each patient, as well as biomarkers helping to optimise the selected drugs fro an individual patient. The Division of Rheumatology of the Medical University Vienna coordinates the project under the direction of Daniel Aletaha, supported by project and communication managers at EUTEMA research services GmbH in Vienna.
