Driving Translational Research Forward at the 6th 3TR Annual Meeting in Barcelona

From 8 – 10 October 2025, more than 60 partners from across Europe, representing industry, research, clinical sites, and patient organisations gathered in Barcelona, Spain, for 3TR’s 6th Annual Project Meeting. Since the project’s launch in October 2019, the consortium has grown into a strong European community now entering its harvesting phase, turning collaboration and research into real-world impact. This year’s Annual Meeting built on this progress, uniting partners to review project results, and exchange on new insights into the mechanisms of response and non-response to treatment across seven different immune-mediated, allergic and inflammatory diseases.

Kicking Off Two Days of Exchange in Barcelona

Held at the premises of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences – Campus Clinic of the University of Barcelona, this year’s meeting could not have found a more fitting venue. The Campus Clinic brings research and clinical practice under one roof, a living example of the translational bridges that 3TR aims to build between science, medicine and patient care. The event opened with welcoming remarks from Prof. Ricard Cervera, Senior Consultant and Head of the Department of Autoimmune Diseases at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, who set an open and collaborative tone for the days ahead.

Progress and Cross-Disease Collaboration

Continuing the opening session, Peter Hecht from Sanofi reflected on the project’s goals for 2025, emphasising the need to strengthen the project’s cross-disease dimension. Given the project’s scope, connecting a variety of diseases and a wide range of partners, from biobanks to patient organisations, he highlighted the importance of continued collaboration: “We need a clear, strategic vision, we have to speak a common language, and we need to understand where certain gaps are.” Following these remarks, the agenda turned to work package updates and break-out sessions, where partners discussed the main results within their respective disease areas before reconvening for a poster session and networking reception, which rounded off the first day.

Deepening Dialogue: Patient Perspectives and a Clear Path Forward

The second day opened with presentations from young researchers and an in-depth cross-disease session exploring how to address the heterogeneity of patient trajectories, identify shared determinants across diseases, and translate these findings into future therapies.

A highlight of the day was a round-table discussion that brought together patients, scientists, and industry representatives. Patients shared honest reflections on living with chronic disease, speaking about the challenge of invisible symptoms and the importance of being understood, while emphasising the need for greater visibility, education, and accessibility in research. The discussion reinforced 3TR’s commitment to patient engagement and public awareness, ensuring that research outcomes remain meaningful and accessible to those most affected.

The meeting concluded with a summary of key outcomes and an action plan for the months ahead. Reflecting on the consortium’s progress, Dawn Waterworth, Head of Translational Immunomics and Translational Sciences Immunology at J&J Innovative Medicine, remarked: “We are forcing that conversation across diseases to build on our knowledge, and 3TR has really tried to accelerate that progress.” With that, the 6th Annual Meeting closed on an optimistic note, confirming that 3TR is on the right track to achieve its mission of transforming cross-disease understanding and improving patient outcomes across Europe.

Extending the Dialogue Beyond the Consortium

The collaborative momentum from the Annual Meeting did not end there. On 10 October, 3TR’s work took centre stage at a dedicated 3TR Conference, organised by project coordinator Marta Alarcón Riquelme (FPS) and hosted by the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences – Campus Clinic at the University of Barcelona. The event extended the conversation beyond the consortium, welcoming researchers, clinicians, and stakeholders from across Europe to exchange on the project’s scientific advances and implications for the wider immunology community.

Opening remarks by Terry Means from Sanofi and Marta Alarcón-Riquelme set the stage for a day of scientific exchange that reflected 3TR’s translational vision. Discussions ranged from self-reactive B cells in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) and biomarkers in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) to the function of fibroblasts in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) and the complexities of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). By convening external experts alongside the 3TR community, the conference highlighted how the project’s findings are contributing to a broader European dialogue on immune-mediated diseases. It demonstrated that 3TR’s impact extends beyond its consortium, continuing to build bridges, share insights, and strengthen collaboration across scientific and clinical communities to drive translational research forward.