Concept and objectives

Pre-eclampsia is a complex disorder that requires a personalised medicine approach. The main goal of the IMPROvED project is therefore to develop a clinically robust predictive blood test for pre-eclampsia, using novel metabolite and protein biomarkers. This blood test is targeted to all first time mothers during early pregnancy to determine their risk for this major pregnancy complication.

By offering first time mothers accurate risk assessment for pre-eclampsia, this approach will radically impact the provision of antenatal care, both in Europe and the rest of the world. It will result in a reduction of clinical complications of the leading cause of maternal death in Europe. 

The study will

1. recruit 5000 first time pregnant women;
2. establish a high calibre biobank, augmented by accurate clinical metadata;
3. determine whether prototype predictive assays and algorithms translate to the clinical environment;
4. assess potential synergy of a combined metabolomic and proteomic approach and
5. progress regulatory approval and development of the selected test into the clinical arena.

Impact

The project demonstrated that development and application of new and improved technologies in the respective fields of metabolomics and proteomics can lead to truly novel screening tests. These tests can significantly reduce the burden of individual patients as well as the burden on healthcare costs and society of a major healthcare problem: pre-eclampsia. IMPROvED has lead to:

• Uptake of personalised medicine into clinical practice – reducing the disease burden on mothers and babies
• Demonstration of the benefit of synergistic personalised medicine approaches
• Facilitation of high calibre research
• Development of novel treatment strategies
• Reduce healthcare costs
• Increase competitiveness of Europe in this area
• A positive impact in the relevant industry