Breaking Silos in Immunology: How 3TR Supports Europe’s Research and Innovation Ambition
As Europe gathers in Brussels on 16–17 September 2025 for the European Research and Innovation Days, the European Commission is setting the stage for its next phase of research policy. The question is clear: how can Europe’s science deliver for citizens, economies, and societies?
3TR — Taxonomy, Treatment, Targets and Remission — offers part of the answer.
Funded under the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI2), 3TR brings together 69 partners from 15 countries to study seven immune-mediated diseases in parallel and jointly. Its mission aligns closely with EU priorities: to break down silos, foster cross-border collaboration, and translate cutting-edge science into better patient outcomes.
Supporting Europe’s Cross-Disease Vision
Europe’s ambition is to lead in innovation and deliver tangible benefits to its people. 3TR exemplifies this by moving beyond the traditional single-disease lens. Instead, it harnesses data from more than 50,000 patients across 50 clinical trials from 7 immune-mediated diseases to identify shared mechanisms that determine treatment response, relapse, or remission.
This is not only a scientific breakthrough — it is also a new way of structuring research. Cross-disease insights, coupled with advanced bioinformatics and multi-omics profiling, can transform how we manage chronic immune conditions and how Europe sustains its competitive edge.
As 3TR Project Coordinator Dr Marta Alarcón-Riquelme, Scientific Director of the GENYO centre at the Fundación Pública Andaluza Progreso y Salud, explains: “3TR shows what Europe can achieve when we think across diseases and borders. By uniting disciplines and data, we are not only advancing immunology, we are also advancing Europe’s ambition to deliver research that truly transforms our way of understanding science with an important impact on patient care.”
Why It Matters Now
As EU leaders debate the next long-term budget and future research strategies, projects like 3TR show what European investment makes possible.
- Innovation: new biomarkers and predictive models of response/non-response.
- Collaboration: academia, SMEs, pharma, and patients united in one transdisciplinary effort.
- Impact: evidence-based treatment choices that mean the right drug, for the right patient, at the right time.
A European Proof Point
3TR is not just a research initiative — it is a proof point of EU ambition in action. By breaking silos and aligning science with Europe’s priorities, it demonstrates how EU funding can deliver on the promise of moving research and innovation forward.
At European Research and Innovation Days 2025, 3TR stands as a reminder: Europe moves forward when we think across diseases, across borders, and across disciplines.
