[Bad memories: understanding and removal of pathogenic consequences of immunological memory in inflammatory rheumatic diseases. The IMPAM consortium].

The Research Consortium IMPAM (IMprinting of the PAthogenic Memory for rheumatic inflammation) has recently been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany. Within this consortium ten different research groups, coordinated by the German Rheumatism Research Center (DRFZ) and the University Hospital Jena, will examine the molecular dialogue between immune system memory cells and mesenchymal cells in chronic rheumatic diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis or ankylosing spondylitis. The consortium's aim is to understand and modulate these interactions therapeutically, such that the pathogenic imprinting of proinflammatory memory cells can be extinguished and the anti-inflammatory capacity of the patients' regulatory cells can be restored.