Immune-mediated diseases (IMDs) are increasing rapidly in the developed countries constituting a huge medical, economic and societal challenge. The reasons to this epidemic are not known, but exposome needs to play an important role since genetic factors cannot explain such a rapid change. In the HEDIMED project altogether 20 academic and industrial partners will join their multidisciplinary and supplementary forces to identify exposomic determinants which are driving this epidemic. The project is based on a combination of data and biological samples from large clinical cohorts constituting the largest clinical resource in this field including 350.000 pregnant women, 28.000 children prospectively followed from birth and 6.600 children from cross-sectional studies. HEDIMED focuses on common chronic IMDs that cause a significant disease burden, including type 1 diabetes, celiac disease, allergies and asthma. Exposomic disease determinants and the underlying biological pathways will be identified by exploratory approach using advanced omics and multiplex technologies combined with cutting–edge datamining technologies. Particular emphasis is paid on early fetal and childhood exposome since the disease process is known to start early. Inclusion of several IMDs makes it possible to identify determinants that are common for many IMDs facilitating the development of widely operating treatments. HEDIMED includes also data and samples from clinical trials that have used exposomice interventions and cell and organ culture models to help the identification of causal associations. HEDIMED will generate an open-access toolbox that offers various kind of data, new technologies, interactions forums, latest information and functional tools for several stakeholders to facilitate the efforts to find ways to control the IMD epidemic. HEDIMED will generate several innovations which can become exploited widely in diagnostic, therapeutic, preventive and health-economical applications. HEDIMED will work together with the other projects (EXPANSE, HEAP, ATHLETE, EQUAL-LIFE, LONGITOOLS, EPHOR, REMEDIA and EXIMIOUS) funded within the Human Exposome programme call H2020 SC1-BHC-2018-2020, in order to achieve collaboration and synergy

Schizophrenia (SZ) is a severe mental disorder affecting more than 0.7% of the adult population. One of the most disabling and emotionally devastating illnesses known to man, SZ is also associated with considerable socioeconomic burden. In general, the chronic nature and the high degree of patient disability make SZ the fourth leading cause of disease burden across the globe with the management costs making up ~3% of the total healthcare budget in the Western countries. The situation is even direr in some regions, including northern Sweden and Finland, where relative prevalence of SZ exceeds two to three times corresponding national or regional averages. Poorly understood aetiology and limited diagnostic arsenal make it difficult to detect and treat SZ in a timely and efficient manner. This underscores a critical need for better understanding of the mechanisms underlying SZ and development of new diagnostic possibilities allowing its early detection, ideally prior to the onset of psychosis. The SZ_TEST will address these challenges by coordinating efforts with complementary areas of expertise in genetics, epigenetics, neurodevelopment, molecular psychiatry, clinical immunology and biotech R&D. The overarching hypothesis underlying our work is that genetic vulnerabilities, neurodevelopmental defects, exposure to pathogens, immune system status and specific lifestyle choices may compound the risk of SZ and that a systematic multivariate analysis of these factors should result in substantially improved diagnostic tools. SZ_TEST will work towards the development of molecular diagnostics tools for early detection of SZ, by using relevant cohorts of human subjects, unique animal and cell models, and combining unbiased high-throughput omic screens with knowledge-based candidate marker analyses. SZ_TEST training network is expected to have a major impact on improving the quality of life and reducing the health care costs in Europe and worldwide.