EU funding for prediction of risk and severity of chronic immune-mediated diseases using AI
Around 10% of the European population has some form of chronic inflammatory
disease. Researchers from CMM are coordinating the WISDOM project which intends
to apply AI models to better predict and manage chronic immune-mediated
diseases, mainly multiple sclerosis. The project was granted approximately €10
million from Horizon Europe’s Pillar II, of which the Karolinska Institutet-based part
has received €2.3 million.
The WISDOM project has been designed to enable integration of medical and research data, secure data sharing, and leverage responsible state-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI)-mediated models with the aim of mitigating the impact of chronic immune-mediated diseases (CIMDs), mainly multiple sclerosis, but also rheumatoid arthritis and myasthenia gravis. ‘Using AI, we will transform complex biological information from existing data sources into clinically applicable
models. If we can identify and treat patients with chronic inflammatory diseases at an earlier stage, there is a good chance of slowing the progression of the disease and reducing symptoms and relapses,’ says CMM Group Leader Ingrid Kockum, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet and principal investigator of the WISDOM project.
WISDOM received €10 million (of which €2.3 million was granted to Karolinska Institutet) within the framework of Horizon Europe’s Pillar II – Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness. To be granted funding, the research projects must also be conducted in partnerships involving not only academia, but also industry, authorities, patient organizations and other important stakeholders.
Ingrid Kockum. Photo: Creo Media Group
Karolinska Institutet is the coordinator of WISDOM and a total of three departments are involved in the project, which is carried out with partners from nine countries, including universities, companies, patient organizations and legal experts. A majority of the project partners from the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet, are also CMM researchers, such as Ingrid Kockum and her research group, as well as Narsis Kiani, Maja Jagodic, Fredrik Phiel and Susanna Brauner.
The project started on December 1, 2023 and will run for five years. Building these AI models requires an extensive amount of personal data, which needs to be managed in accordance with the GDPR. Therefore, the project will also identify solutions that can contribute to increased and secure data sharing, not only within an organization but also across national borders.
– ‘In the next phase, we will use the models in a study involving first-degree relatives of people with multiple sclerosis, in order to predict the risk of relatives being affected. One hope is that the models can be applied to other diseases in the future,’ says Ingrid Kockum. The project partners foresee that the success of WISDOM will have far-reaching implications for chronic disease management and the use of health data for research and innovation, benefiting patients, healthcare providers, and society.