Work Strand 2 (WS2)

Immune biomarkers in skin and blood

Work Strand 2 is focussed on investigating the discovery and validation of molecular and immune signatures in skin and blood that stratify response. It will also assess key biomarkers for investigating the mechanisms of treatment response.

Hypotheses

• Distinct baseline molecular disease signatures classify psoriasis endotypes and they can differentially stratify therapeutic response
• Biomarkers of treatment response in skin and blood reflect the immune pathways targeted by a given therapy (drug endotypes, e.g. TNF-alpha pathway)
• Biomarker signals detected within skin inform scalable markers in peripheral blood

Main research outcomes

1. Discovery and validation of molecular and immune signatures in skin and blood that stratify therapeutic response
2. Determination of key immune pathways targeted by biomarkers for future mechanistic investigation
3. Testing of scalable biomarkers in cross-sectional and prospective cohorts informed by WS1.