“Finding a way to induce remission is the next big challenge for GSK researchers looking for new asthma treatments,” says Dr Antoon van Oosterhout, Vice President of our Allergic Inflammation Discovery Performance Unit. “By pooling our collective expertise in genetics, bioinformatics and translational medicine, we hope to uncover the origins of asthma remission.”
Comparing blood and lung tissue cells from patients with persistent asthma, those whose asthma naturally stopped and healthy individuals, the project team will be working to understand asthma remission at a cellular and molecular level. The aim is to identify the unique biological markers – or characteristics - of asthma remission.
The hope is that these biomarkers will lead to the discovery of new therapeutic ‘targets’ for asthma. These are the starting points for developing new medicines - the biological processes involved in disease that help researchers to home in on potential new medicines.
“Our knowledge of the basis of asthma has evolved rapidly in recent years, as has our understanding of the role of genetics in health and disease,” says Antoon.