This grant will support Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA), Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) and Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) collection within the A3BC. The A3BC is the first national collaborative project of its kind anywhere in the world! The A3BC vision is to identify causes and cures for a wide range of inflammatory arthritic and autoimmune conditions using broad and integrated big data, biobank-enabled, collaborative and multidisciplinary research. It presents a holistic and large-scale resource to best enable both precision and preventive medicine advances.
What is the issue for NSW?
Musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions are Australia’s leading cause of disability. JIA affects more than 5,000 children under 16 years and can lead to restricted development. SLE affects 15-20,000 young people and children and is associated with a high rate of premature death. And AS affects ~250,000 younger people, with significant losses in worker productivity. Of note, MSK is the disease group with the highest total annual health expenditure. However, it has been estimated that as much as 30-40% of such spending is wasted through a lack of efficacy and/or side-effects due to poorly targeted therapeutics. While drug development has produced biologic therapies that can improve symptoms, they do not cure, pose serious side effects, are expensive, and there is no clear evidence for predicting optimal delivery or response.
What does the research aim to do and how?
The A3BC aims to:
1. Establish a national, open-access, best-practice biobank network to collect, process and store a broad range of biospecimens (blood, tissue etc.) for pioneering multi-omic research;
2. Combine broad biological data (from biospecimens) with multiple national datasets, including patient-reported outcome/ experience data, medical records, Commonwealth data (i.e. Medicare, pharmaceutical benefits) and cancer/death registries;
3. Apply cutting-edge data sharing and analytical tools to these combined datasets and search for potential associations/patterns that are significant to the patient and/or population health; and
4. Work with doctors, government and industry to build a strong evidence base and translate our discoveries into new decision-making tools and policies to better prevent and predict disease.