ELF attends the 3TR 6th annual meeting in Barcelona

The EU-funded 3TR project brings together researchers, healthcare professionals and patients to study treatment response across autoimmune, inflammatory and allergic diseases, with the aim of improving therapy outcomes. 

This year’s meeting took place as the project enters the stage where data is being analysed. Patient representatives from all disease areas covered by the project attended, and it was good to see new members, including Khalida and Sabrina, contributing to discussions about the project’s future. 

Patient involvement

Patient voices continue to play an important role in guiding the project. The 3TR cross-disease Patient Advisory Committee (PAC) had the opportunity to ask the work package leads key questions about the project’s aims and impact: 

• Right Drug, Right Patient, Right Time – Francesca asked what outcomes the team is confident the project will deliver, highlighting the need for realistic expectations alongside tangible results. 

• Predicting responders and nonresponders – Theo, representing ELF, focused on identifying who will benefit from treatments and on ensuring any tests are as simple and non-invasive as possible for patients. 

• Cross-disease learning – Sabrina asked whether common patterns are already emerging across diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, asthma and rheumatoid arthritis, and how the project can make the most of cross-disease insights. 

• Future impact – Khalida asked how 3TR could support earlier diagnosis and better treatment options for future generations. 

• Communicating results – Blanca highlighted the importance of keeping patients informed of the findings and ensuring the project has a meaningful impact on patient care and policy. 

Other discussions 

• The teams working on asthma and COPD discussed progress and challenges, including how to make the most of the project budget. Patient input was included in these discussions. 

• PAC members shared practical insights on symptom management and treatment response across different conditions 

3TR’s Respiratory Patient Working Group also met at the ERS Congress with representatives from the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, US and European patient groups attending. 

Researchers presented an update on the consortium’s core severe asthma study, which is exploring how patients respond to different biological therapies. The goal is to better understand which treatments work best for which patients and to ensure the right drug is targeted to the right patient as early as possible. 

The discussion highlighted both the challenges and opportunities in achieving personalised treatment approaches. Patient representatives contributed valuable perspectives on how to maximise the impact of the study’s findings and shared ideas for setting future research priorities. 

Looking ahead 

ELF will continue to support patient involvement in 3TR and make sure patient perspectives inform research priorities, project outputs and communication of results as the project moves further into the data analysis stage.