Chronic inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel diseases, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, or inflammatory lung conditions accompany patients throughout their lives. They are driven by excessive immune reactions that severely impair quality of life and also damage the target organ. The underlying causes are unknown. Their prevalence is increasing worldwide, posing major challenges for healthcare systems.

The Cluster of Excellence Precision Medicine in Chronic Inflammation (PMI) aims to significantly improve the diagnosis and treatment of these diseases. Instead of a general therapy that is the same for all patients, PMI is developing precision medicine—medicine tailored to the individual.

To achieve this, around 380 researchers from universities and research institutions collaborate across eleven closely connected research and technology areas. They combine cutting-edge basic research with powerful clinical structures at the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein—Germany’s second-largest university hospital. In interdisciplinary inflammation centers (Comprehensive Center for Inflammation Medicine, CCIM), patients are treated according to uniform, highly standardized procedures. Cluster members have access to clinical data and biomaterials systematically collected—with the consent of the individuals concerned (broad consent)—from residual diagnostic materials at UKSH, in order to gain new insights into diagnosis, disease progression, and therapy. This is made possible through extensive access to data and biomaterials from a structured care setting. From broad consent to the access to clinical data, the clinical workflows at the university hospital have been optimized for use in clinical research.

On this basis, PMI is developing a new systems-oriented taxonomy that allows for more targeted selection of therapies and the identification of new therapeutic targets. In the long term, this will not only improve treatment outcomes but also enable diseases to be detected in their preclinical phase and prevent their manifestation.
Central components of the cluster structure that foster interaction between basic and clinical researchers include “clinical demonstrators,” in which research results are validated in clinical studies with patients, and “target innovations,” in which new diagnostic or therapeutic approaches are tested in the preclinical phase. Through the close integration of clinical practice, laboratory work, and highly specialized research data management, PMI has fundamentally transformed the clinical research landscape at its sites.

The cluster strategically invests in supporting early-career researchers, particularly through the successful Clinician Scientist Program, which enables physicians in clinical training to conduct scientific research alongside patient care. The new governance structure for clinical research created through PMI, “Precision Health in Schleswig-Holstein” (PHSH), is led by top researchers who are selected every three years in an externally reviewed competition. As part of their appointment, they are anchored at the W3 level ad personam and receive funding to establish additional W1/W2 professorships for the next generation of clinical researchers.

With its combination of medical excellence, technological innovation, and interdisciplinary collaboration, PMI exemplifies the path toward the medicine of the future – precise, personalized, and preventive.

The Inflammation Cluster from Schleswig-Holstein will already be funded for the fourth consecutive time in 2026 (2007–2018 “Inflammation at Interfaces” within the Excellence Initiative, 2019–2025 PMI within the Excellence Strategy).

Involved Institutions:

• IPN – Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education
• Kiel Institute for the World Economy
• Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology
• Muthesius University of Fine Arts and Design
• Research Center Borstel – Leibniz Lung Center
• University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH)