Inflammatory responses are fundamental in the defense against infections. An inadequate immune response, however, can promote inflammatory diseases across different organs, and even cancer. Despite the growing incidence and prevalence of inflammatory diseases, most of the therapies currently available are palliative in nature and do not offer a cure. The lack of curative therapies is in part caused by the translational lag between basic research and clinical applications.

iSTAR aims to improve the resulting clinical and societal challenge by recruiting and integrating highly talented and motivated clinicians into a structured Advanced Clinician Scientists program providing a tailored curriculum, resources, a support structure as well as research networks. The training and long-term retention of such skilled clinicians in combination with access to patient cohorts and state-of-the-art infrastructure, will boost our understanding of inflammatory responses across different organs and diseases in interdisciplinary settings.

iSTAR’ s long-term goal is to translate basic research into the clinic in order to target inflammatory responses, to achieve tissue-specific immune regulation, and thus, to develop new curative therapies.