Understand and exploit endogenous protection mechanisms to combat neuro-inflammation

With a prevalence of 25.000 cases (NL) and 2.8 million cases worldwide, MS is the most common neurological disorder that affects young adults in their prime of life (between 20-40 yr). MS patients have to deal with the increasing disease burden as reflected by physical and cognitive problems. Together, they severely diminish patients’ quality of life and represent the main reasons for work-related/personal problems and job loss at a very young age. Approximately 65% of all MS patients are unemployed within five years after diagnosis, which obviously has a large impact on patients, their families, and on society at large due to substantial costs. For example, it has been estimated that MS in 2016 caused the loss of 1.1 million disability-adjusted life years. In this newly established public-private partnership project, we will address the biggest challenge in MS research: to identify novel therapeutic interventions that not only slow down or halt MS progression, but also induce repair/recovery in MS patients. On the short term, this will result in less pressure on the healthcare system, whereas on the long term it allows patients to stay active in society for as long as possible, thereby driving the economy. For this, we will work closely together with our industrial partner to decode the mediators of the terminating events in the resolution phase of neuro-inflammation, in order to revolutionize our understanding of these endogenous protective mechanisms and exploit this knowledge in the combat against MS.