Oxford, UK – PrecisionLife is part of a new £5.3m EU Horizon 2020 project that aims to develop precision medicine approaches to improve the treatment and quality of life of patients with endometriosis. The FEMaLe (Finding Endometriosis using Machine Learning) project is led by three researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark who are heading a consortium of major international research and innovation partners including PrecisionLife as well as the University of Oxford, University of Edinburgh, the University of Aberdeen and Riga Technical University.
Endometriosis is a systemic disease that is often painful and chronic, affecting around 10% of reproductive-age women. The disease can have a negative impact on a patient’s physical and emotional well-being, quality of life, as well as productivity.
To address these challenges the FEMaLe project builds bridges across disciplines and sectors by translating genetic and epidemiological knowledge into clinical tools that support clinical decision making aimed at both general practice and highly specialized endometriosis clinics – all via machine learning and artificial intelligence.
PrecisionLife will perform high-resolution patient stratification analyses on genetic, clinical and other omics data to identify biological sub-types of endometriosis. Insights generated by the PrecisionLife platform into the combined effects of multiple genetic variants and clinical characteristics will be used to develop predictive risk scores and clinical decision support tools for clinicians.
“We are delighted to be part of the FEMaLe project, to address the unmet medical needs of the 200m women around the world suffering from endometriosis,” said Dr Veronique Bouchet, Chief Medical Officer, PrecisionLife. “There is a great need for novel approaches to improve the management of this debilitating disease, which is still being misdiagnosed, with women waiting an average of 7.5 years before receiving validation that they are suffering from a very real illness. Diagnostic laparoscopy is currently the only way of diagnosing endometriosis, there are still limited therapeutic options and there are long wait times for surgery.”
Steve Gardner, CEO added: “PrecisionLife’s unique analytics are driving the next wave of precision medicine insights in chronic disease. We are able to understand the deep biological drivers of complex disease etiology because we can identify the genetic variants and clinical factors acting together in specific disease subpopulations. This is a novel approach and we are excited to be able to participate in this prestigious consortium.”
For more information, please see https://newsroom.au.dk/en/news/show/artikel/dkk-45-million-for-research-into-stigmatised-womens-disease/ and https://lnkd.in/eewdBAH