University Hospital Düsseldorf
The Department of Dermatology at the University Hospital Düsseldorf is part of a maximum health care provider, represents the lead institution within the interdisciplinary University Allergy Centre Düsseldorf and has established certified centres for Wound Care and Skin Tumors. During the past 15 years, the Department has established a strong scientific program in unravelling the molecular and cellular mechanisms of chronic inflammatory and autoimmune skin diseases including standardized biobanking and was part of the EU-MAARS consortium.
Role within BIOMAP
The Department of Dermatology at the University Hospital Düsseldorf will participate in work packages (WP) 1 and 4 of the BIOMAP consortium. Briefly, we will participate in establishing the BIOMAP clinical research network, mapping of diagnostic criteria, clinical phenotypes and outcomes across the BIOMAP cohorts to facilitate cross-cohort analyses and refining clinical outcomes (and instruments) relating to clinical phenotype, disease course and therapy response in WP1. In WP4, we will explore the relationship between the environment, host genome and microbiome, and analyse how AD/Pso risk alleles and environmental factors associate with microbiome composition, investigate the role of the microbiome in disease initiation and early development, determine microbial signatures correlating with disease subtype, activity, and therapy response and explore the relationship between the skin microbiome, gene regulation and disease activity. Finally, the functional characterization of microbial targets in cellular models for AD and Pso will be performed.