Arthritis Research UK Centre of Excellence in the Genetics of the Rheumatic Diseases

The applicants, with Arthritis Research UK support, have made enormous progress in identification of susceptibility loci for three types of inflammatory arthritis. This has been achieved through recruitment to an unrivalled collection of patient cohorts, leadership of national and international consortia, participation in a series of ground-breaking projects (WTCCC, Immunochip, Exome Chip) and leveraging of significant additional funding. Our vision for the Centre of Excellence will be to provide a national and international focus for advancing our understanding of the genetic contribution to onset, outcome, response to and toxicity of therapy in inflammatory arthritis (rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, psoriatic arthritis). We will achieve this through a series of projects addressing two key goals: (i) an increased understanding of the heterogeneity of inflammatory arthritis using genetics, genomics and epigenetics and (ii) identification of predictors of disease outcome, including treatment response. Our aim is to ensure that patients will benefit fully from our discoveries through stratified medicine with safer use of existing therapies and through the identification of targets for novel drug design. Based in high quality genetic and genomic facilities, training for the next generation of researchers, and supporting the work of collaborators, will be central to our mission.