Vladimir Litvak, PhD (Takeda)
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a highly heterogeneous auto-immune disease with poorly understood disease mechanisms, lacking adequate pathomechanism-based patient stratification and treatment options. Here, we present an optimized workflow for deep plasma proteome profiling and multi-omics analysis that was applied on prospective collection of 62 longitudinal samples from SLE patients consisting of two cohorts: Lupus Nephritis (LN) and Extra-Renal Lupus (ERL). Our analysis reveals disease-type specific biomarker signatures in ERL and LN patients.
We demonstrate that integration of different omics layers enables robust classifications of disease subtypes, even for patients in the remission phase. Multi-omics approach has a potential for generating specific signatures of underlying pathomechanisms determinants that could be used as early predictors of disease progression and biomarkers for patient stratification.
Short Bio Vladimir Litvak:
Vladimir Litvak is an immunologist with over 17 years’ experience as a Lab Head and Project Lead in basic science and clinical research. Vladimir received his PhD from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and performed postdoctoral work at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle. Subsequently, Dr. Litvak took a position as an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School where his laboratory focused on investigating the role of innate and adaptive immune signaling in the regulation of inflammatory and cytokine signaling in CNS. His contributions using systems biology approaches to decipher the role of immune cells in disease pathology is widely recognized and published in several top-notch peer reviewed journals including Nature, Nature Immunology, Nature Cell Biology, Immunity and Molecular Cell.
In 2017, Vladimir joined Immunology & Inflammation Research Therapeutic Area at Sanofi as Lab Head and Project Lead advancing programs from early discovery to IND. During his tenure, Dr. Litvak initiated systems biology studies to dissect inflammatory signaling in autoimmunity.
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Using single-cell and multi-omics analysis he identified molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying autoimmune diseases, drug mechanism of action, and novel biomarkers for patient stratification. Dr. Litvak established and coordinated several large international multi-disciplinary teams to identify and target critical immune pathways in autoimmune disorders. Dr. Litvak established and led the ImmUniverse consortium within Innovative Medicines initiative (IMI), which aims to identify circulating biomarkers in Atopic Dermatitis and Ulcerative colitis. The ImmUniverse consortium encompasses Sanofi, GSK, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Novartis and 18 European academic research centers and was launched in January 2020.
In 2021, Vladimir joined Plasma-Derived Therapies at Takeda as Translational Research Lead. Dr. Litvak employs multi-omics platform approaches to drive novel plasma derived therapies, advance the understanding of their role in disease biology and improve treatment outcomes.