The Nordic RA (NORA) project

The NORA project is a Nordic collaboration founded by NordForsk. The overarching goal of the NORA project is to develop a much-needed personalized medicine approach to the management of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), both by the development of new prediction tools and by digital tools to bring these new insights to patients and the healthcare service.

The approach taken represents an advancement in state of the art of personalized medicine approaches in RA and includes the availability and analyses of data across different domains (genomics, biomarkers, clinical data, patient-reported data, register-linkage data), new biomarker assays, the inclusion of patient-centric outcomes (e.g., pain) rather than composite and insensitive outcome metrics. The anticipated outcomes are better and earlier treatment of RA paired with the development of products that can be used for cost-efficient improvement of treatment results for patients.

Main international collaborators

The main international collaborators in the map below represent major institutions across the globe that significantly strengthen the research conducted in the REMEDY center:

Keele University, UK

• Prof. Krysia Dziedzic

Karolinska University, Sverige

• Prof. Johan Askling

Leiden University, Nederland

• Prof. Désirée van der Heijde

International project leader: Professor/senior physician Johan Askling, Karolinska Institute

REMEDY project leader in NORA: Professor/senior physician Hilde B. Hammer, REMEDY, Diakonhjemmet Hospital

Norwegian team representing REMEDY: Espen A Haavardsholm, Joe Sexton, Tore K Kvien, Bitte Stenvik, Siri Lillegraven, Till Uhlig and Eirik Klami Kristianslund

Highlights 2022:

• Exchange of biological material and clinical data across borders

• First results from genetic and biomarker analyses

Harvard University, USA

• Prof. Daniel H. Solomon

Boston University, USA

• Prof. Tuhina Neogi

Copenhagen University, Danmark

• Prof. Mikkel Østergaard

Aarhus University, Danmark

• Prof. Annette de Thurah

Free University Berlin, Tyskland

• Prof. Xenofon Baraliakos

Sorbonne University, Frankrike

• Prof. Laure Gossec