BIOCYCLE and the SPARE trial at Edinburgh

Professor Jack Satsangi of CGEM is a co-applicant on a major new grant awarded as part of the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme to support the BIOCYCLE project: November 2015

Professor Jack Satsangi of CGEM is a co-applicant on a major new grant awarded as part of the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme to support the BIOCYCLE project, in collaboration with an international team of clinicians and researchers. The aim of BIOCYCLE is to assess long-term treatment strategies in Crohn’s disease by examining the efficacy, safety, effectiveness and feasibility of either anti-TNFα or immunosuppressant withdrawal in patients on combination therapy.

The core part of the BIOCYCLE project is a randomized controlled trial called SPARE. In the UK the SPARE trial is being coordinated by the Edinburgh Clinical Trials Unit and will include twenty-one sites across Scotland (including the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh), England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Over 2 years SPARE aims to recruit 70 participants in the UK with sustained Crohn’s disease remission without steroids for at least 6 months and treated with combination therapy.

Professor Satsangi’s team are also leading the BIOCYCLE work package on biomarkers, evaluating the predictive value of new biomarkers of disease progression.