ImmUniverse Progress and General Assembly Meeting 2025: Moving Towards Cross-Disease Integration

The ImmUniverse consortium gathered online for its Progress and General Assembly Meeting 2025, bringing together partners from across Europe for two days of scientific exchange and strategic discussions. The meeting was officially opened by Stefania Vetrano (UNIMED), Project Coordinator, and Sumanta Mukherjee (GSK), Project Lead. Over the course of the meeting, participants shared insights into recent scientific advances, ongoing analyses, and the road ahead as the project enters its final nine months. The consortium celebrated significant progress, having successfully achieved around 70% of all project milestones and deliverables.

Day 1: Focus on Ulcerative Colitis

The first day centred on Ulcerative Colitis (UC), featuring updates from multiple work packages and teams. Scientific highlights included promising findings from the single omic layer and integrative analysis of prospective studies and insights from retrospective data evaluations. These results mark important steps forward in understanding disease mechanisms and data integration within ImmUniverse.

Day 2: Focus on Atopic Dermatitis

On the second day, discussions turned to Atopic Dermatitis (AD). Sessions provided updates on project progress, the validation of potential biomarkers, and plans for the next stages of research.

Key Discussions and Next Steps

Beyond scientific presentations, the meeting also addressed broader strategic topics:

• Recruitment and sample collection have been completed, with data upload to the central database nearly finalised.
• Discussions focused on project sustainability, particularly on the long-term use and maintenance of the ImmUniverse database beyond the project’s lifetime.
• A round table session explored preparations for an upcoming meeting with the European Medicines Agency (EMA), ensuring that research outcomes align with regulatory perspectives and potential clinical applications.

Looking Ahead

As the project moves into its final phase, the consortium remains motivated and united by a shared vision: advancing the integration of multiple omics approaches and progressing towards cross-disease integration between Atopic Dermatitis and Ulcerative Colitis.

ImmUniverse partners left the meeting inspired to continue their collaborative efforts towards innovative, patient-focused solutions for chronic inflammatory diseases.