Mission

The SUrrogate markers for Micro- and Macrovascular hard endpoints for Innovative diabetes Tools (SUMMIT) consortium is an effort of Europe’s Innovative Medicines Initiative to research biomarkers that indicate in advance if a patient is likely to develop vascular complications. The central goal of the SUMMIT consortium is to develop surrogate markers for micro- and macrovascular hard endpoints so as to shorten clinical trials on diabetes. SUMMIT focuses on diabetic nephropathy (DN), diabetic retinopathy (DR), and Lower Extremity Arterial Disease (LEAD) in both type 1 (T1D) and type 2 (T2D) diabetes as well as on cardiovascular disease (CVD) in T2D. The identification and characterization of these markers can be used to predict risks of developing the complications and monitor the effects of therapeutic interventions.

SUMMIT’s work streams:

Consortium History

2009 – Project start date (November)
2011 – EFPIA member companies, Sanofi-Aventis and Pfizer, join IMI SUMMIT project (July)
2012 – SUMMIT advanced discovery efforts to a point where it could launch into a consortium-wide, multi-disciplinary integration of data for each disease indication under investigation, with a special focus on CVD and DN (March)
2013 – IMI’s three diabetes projects, including SUMMIT, sign a new Memorandum of Understanding that formally creates the ‘IMI Diabetes Platform’ (October)
2013 –  SUMMIT presents its achievements at the IMI Diabetes Platform Symposium on the occasion of the 49th EASD Annual Meeting in Barcelona (October) and has another 8 oral and 3 poster presentations listed in the EASD's meeting program (October)
2013 – SUMMIT wins additional funding and pharmaceutical industry investment to further develop its animal models; the project is officially extended for another 12 months, to October 2015 (May)
2014 – SUMMIT signs a Memorandum of Understanding with the JDRF for collaboration on the genetics of diabetic nephropathy, within the context of the SUMMIT project
2015 – SUMMIT holds the SUMMIT Open Symposium "A leap forward for diabetes complications" presenting scientific progress and giving a forum to present the patient, the academic and the pharmaceutical industry perspective on the project (April)
2015 – SUMMIT ends (October)

Structure & Governance

Project Coordinator
Michael Mark
CardioMetabolic Diseases Research, Boehringer Ingelheim

Managing entity of IMI beneficiaries
Leif Groop
Diabetes and Endocrinology, Lund University
Skåne University Hospital

Project Manager
Jacqueline Postma
Lund University Diabetes Centre
CRC, Department of Clinical Services, Malmö 

Project Manager
Markus Albertini
CardioMetabolic Diseases Research, Boehringer Ingelheim

SUMMIT has established an integrated framework of expertise involving 19 European academic institutions, one SME (small- and medium-sized enterprises) along with six pharma partners. The team combines competencies from a wide range of disciplines including molecular and cellular biology, genetics, animal models, bioinformatics, and imaging technologies.

WP1 aims at:

Financing

This project is funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative, a public-private partnership between the European Union (EU) and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), resources of which are composed of financial contribution from the EU Seventh Framework Program and EFPIA companies’ in-kind contribution. Large pharmaceutical companies participating in IMI projects do not receive IMI funding.

The IMI Intellectual Property (IP) Policy governs the IP regime of all projects funded by the IMI JU.  To assist with specific IP queries, IMI has set up a dedicated IP Helpdesk that can be contacted by e-mailing IMI-IP-Helpdesk@imi.europa.eu. The IMI IP policy can be accessed at the following address: http://www.imi.europa.eu/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/imi-ipr-policy01august2007_en.pdf

Sponsors & Partners

According to IMI’s intellectual property policy, the participants undertake to disseminate the data
as soon as reasonably practicable but not later than one year after the termination or expiry of the project. The Project Agreement shall include a description of the material that must be disseminated in accordance with the IP Policy and referenced in the Grant Agreement. If the participants do not disseminate within such time periods without good reason, the Executive Office has the right to disseminate such results in a manner consistent with the Grant Agreement.

Completes one of the largest human genetics discovery efforts for diabetic kidney disease (CKD/DN), GWAS data from more than 10,000 individuals, and exome sequence data from more than 1,000 comparable GWAS efforts for other indications (WP1).

Leif Groop
Diabetes and Endocrinology, Lund University, Skåne University Hospital
Malmö, Sweden
Email: leif.groop@med.lu.se

Jacqueline Postma
Lund University Diabetes Centre
CRC, Dept. of Clinical Sciences, Malmö 
Jan Waldenströms gata 35
SE-205 02 Malmö, Sweden
mailto: jacqueline.postma@med.lu.se

Markus Albertini
CardioMetabolic Diseases Research, Boehringer Ingelheim
Birkendorfer Strasse 65
88397 Biberach an der Riss, Germany
mailto: markus.albertini@boehringer-ingelheim.com