What is RELENT?

RELENT is a research project that aims at discovering and defining disease mechanisms that allow to stratify patients into those that will respond to a certain treatment and those that may not. We expect that it will become possible to predict for instance, whether specific patients with Crohn's disease (CD) would benefit from a treatment, like tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors, and whether the same applies to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or, conversely, whether the rationale to treat RA patients with drugs inhibiting T-cell signaling, is also valid for CD.

These measures will not only minimize treatment-associated toxicities, disease-related damage and long-term morbidity but will also reduce health care costs and the devastating societal impact of autoimmune disease. RELENT has implemented measures to evaluate the impact of its research on cost efficacy of change of treatment.

RELENT is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme for 4.5 years with nearly 6 Mio Euros.

Who is involved in RELENT?

RELENT is a multidisciplinary group of scientists,  clinical investigators and SMEs from 6 European countries and one from Australia.

How can patients benefit from RELENT?

Six RELENT clinical investigators, together with industrial partners/SMEs, co-ordinate and participate in clinical studies on an international scale. Their close collaboration with Patients’ organisations will give the relevant target groups not only rapid information about the latest research results but also access to participation in clinical studies translating the results of RELENT to improved health care regimen. We aim at achieving this with active support of patient advocacy groups who have commitment to equality of health care throughout Europe and the world. Mrs Jutta Lindenthal, spokeswomen for Working Group Vasculitis, the largest European, and Mrs Joyce Kullman, Executive director of the Vasculitis foundation, the largest US based patients group, have agreed to serve on RELENT's advisory board. It is for the patients, not only with them, that we seek to advance the knowledge about their disease and ways to better treat it.