New research center to examine complications in dermatology patients

Why do some patients with psoriasis develop arthritis while others do not? Can we predict which patients will develop complications? And how do we choose the right treatment for each individual patient?

These are central questions for the new research center Dermatology Research Across Multiple Disciplines (DREAM) at Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital, which is starting as a two-year pilot project funded by the LEO Foundation.

"We want to examine patients' diseases from the molecular to the societal level – the full picture. The skin often functions as a mirror of what is happening in the body, for example in the joints or intestines, and that is the connection we want to understand better," explains Associate Professor Søren Egedal Degn, who together with Clinical Professor Christian Vestergaard serves as center director for DREAM.

Cross-disciplinary collaboration creates new insights

In DREAM, patients are monitored simultaneously by specialists from three different fields – skin, joints and connective tissue, and gastrointestinal – while basic researchers analyze their biological samples to find patterns that can predict disease progression.

"What's exciting is that when physicians, molecular biologists, and bioinformaticians talk together, suddenly completely new ways of understanding diseases emerge. It's not just knowledge added on top of each other, but knowledge that amplifies each other," says Christian Vestergaard.

Dean of Health Anne-Mette Hvas emphasizes the importance of this approach:

"DREAM is an excellent example of how cross-disciplinarity creates new knowledge and better solutions for patients. When we bring clinical experts together with basic researchers across faculties and hospital, possibilities emerge that none of us could have created alone."

Large unmet need

Today, doctors cannot predict which psoriasis patients will develop psoriatic arthritis later in life. They also don't know whether earlier treatment intervention could have prevented it.

Between 600,000 and 700,000 Danes live with chronic inflammatory diseases that can affect multiple organs.

"One of the biggest challenges right now is to match each patient with the right treatment. Both to avoid treatments that don't work, but also to avoid treatments that are actually harmful," says Søren Egedal Degn.

From data to personalized medicine

DREAM will combine advanced tissue analyses, comprehensive clinical data, and analyses of the body's microbiome to identify patterns that can predict disease progression.

"The more data we collect, the stronger our models become. The goal is that one day we can take a blood sample and say: You have disease x, are at risk of developing y and z, and will benefit from precisely this medication," says Christian Vestergaard.

The first descriptive results are expected within one and a half to two years. However, researchers expect that the real impact will only become apparent in the longer term.

Facts about DREAM

• The pilot phase runs from October 1, 2025, to September 30, 2027
• Funded by the LEO Foundation
• Collaboration between Aarhus University at the Faculty of Health and the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Aarhus University Hospital

Read more about DREAM on the center's website

Contact

Associate Professor and Center Director Søren Egedal Degn
Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University
Phone: +45 22141703
sdegn@biomed.au.dk

Clinical Professor and Center Director Christian Vestergaard
Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University
Phone: +45 26141832
christian.vestergaard@clin.au.dk