Stefan Schreiber
Translational Inflammation Research
Connecting the Dots: From Shared Principles to Precision Medicine
Our group has made significant strides in uncovering the genomic blueprint of numerous inflammatory barrier diseases. This journey revealed intriguing connections, as disease genes and clinical features often transcend the boundaries of individual conditions. Additionally, we’ve observed subclinical manifestations – subtle signs of the disease beyond the primary site – that often go unnoticed. These seemingly hidden aspects may play a significant role in disease burden and even mortality, like the increased risk of cardiovascular events in certain rheumatic conditions. Recognizing the overlapping nature of inflammatory barrier diseases, both in cause and presentation, holds immense value for long-term outcome studies and paved the way for the development of similar or even identical targeted therapies across various disease entities.
Our vision: Achieving Comprehensive Disease Control
While innovative therapies like biologics and small molecule inhibitors can achieve symptom-based remission for some patients, they often fail to halt disease progression for many others. This limitation underscores the need for new, meaningful endpoints that extend beyond symptom control. Therefore, our group prioritizes developing such measures, including exploring advanced imaging techniques and metabolic parameters like tryptophan metabolites. The ultimate goal is to achieve comprehensive disease control, which combines normalized biomarkers, absence of inflammation, restored organ function, and improved patient-reported outcomes, including symptom control. By developing innovative molecular markers, we strive for the ambitious goal of assigning the optimal therapy for each individual patient.
Integrated, Cross-Disease Cohorts and Molecular Analysis
Our research is driven by comprehensive inflammation boards that serve as a catalyst for developing cross-disease diagnostic and treatment protocols. This collaborative approach led to the development of promising targeted therapies like sgp130Fc (anti-IL-6 trans-signaling) for multiple inflammatory conditions.
When evaluating the efficacy of advanced therapies across various inflammatory barrier diseases, we employ a rigorous approach that focuses on both core disease features and specific molecular markers for each condition. Each potential therapy undergoes a comprehensive evaluation through dedicated board discussions followed by standardized clinical follow-up with biomaterial collection.
We leverage large-scale, centralized cohorts for systems medicine analysis. This includes comprehensive analysis of collected biomaterials, encompassing immunophenotyping, microbiome analysis, advanced imaging techniques, and modern ex-vivo models (in collaboration with the groups of Philip Rosenstiel, Konrad Aden, Florian Tran). Through this multifaceted approach, we aim to unravel the mechanisms of therapy response across diseases, ultimately identifying universal principles for disease modification as well as specific molecular endophenotypes corresponding to therapeutic outcomes. By implementing these strategies, we aim to extend the reach of informed clinical decision-making, leading to personalized treatment plans for individual patients.
Please find more information about Stefan Schreiber in his function as clinic director on Klinik für Innere Medizin I (uksh.de).
Main Projects / Funding
