Journal of Inflammation Research

Inflammatory Endotypes: Integrative Omics and Biological Validation

The Journal of Inflammation Research is pleased to welcome you to submit your research to the Article Collection "Inflammatory Endotypes: Integrative Omics and Biological Validation".

Inflammation can arise through distinct biological mechanisms within the same clinical diagnosis. These mechanistically defined subtypes, or endotypes, may differ in cellular composition, molecular regulation and response to treatment. This Article Collection focuses on identifying and validating inflammatory endotypes through integrative omics and complementary biological studies. It welcomes research within a single disease as well as comparisons across diseases within the journal's scope, including autoimmune, cardiometabolic, respiratory, gastrointestinal and neurological conditions, sepsis and cancer-associated inflammation. Transcriptomic, epigenomic, proteomic and metabolomic approaches, together with single-cell and spatial profiling, can help connect molecular patterns to the cells and processes responsible for inflammation.

A central challenge is to determine whether molecular differences represent reproducible biological subtypes or reflect disease severity, treatment exposure, cell composition or technical variation. Resolving this distinction is important for developing interpretable biomarkers and selecting targets for further investigation. The Collection therefore emphasizes evidence linking candidate endotypes to inflammatory mechanisms and clinically relevant phenotypes. Relevant work may examine the stability of endotypes across cohorts, their changes during disease progression or treatment, and the relationship between tissue and circulating signatures. Computationally defined clusters should be distinguished from mechanistically supported endotypes, with the strength and limitations of each interpretation made explicit. Both positive and negative validation findings can clarify the usefulness of proposed classifications.

We welcome original research and focused reviews on inflammatory endotype discovery; cellular and spatial determinants of endotypes; regulatory mechanisms and candidate biomarkers; temporal changes and treatment-associated phenotypes; and biological validation of endotype-linked targets. Integrative multi-omics studies are encouraged, while informative single-omics studies and experimental investigations addressing these questions are also welcome. Bioinformatics and public-data studies must meet the journal's requirements for validation using the authors' own independent samples and functional follow-up. Studies should establish a substantive connection to inflammatory biology and to endotype identification, explanation or validation. Clinical utility and treatment selection should be discussed in proportion to the available evidence.

Keywords: Inflammatory endotypes; Integrative omics; Molecular stratification; Single-cell profiling; Biological validation

Meet the Guest Advisors

Dr. Jincheng Wang is a clinician-researcher specializing in imaging biomarkers for inflammation in gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary disorders. He applies radiomics and machine learning to investigate inflammatory processes in conditions including inflammatory bowel disease, chronic liver inflammation, and inflammation-associated malignancies. Dr. Wang's research develops non-invasive imaging-based inflammatory biomarkers for disease assessment, prognostication, and treatment monitoring, leveraging multi-institutional datasets and real-world clinical validation studies. His work bridges computational medicine and inflammatory medicine to advance precision understanding of inflammation through imaging.

Dr. Hao Chi, MD, conducts biomedical research in the Department of Quantitative Health Sciences at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. His work uses integrative bioinformatics, bulk and single-cell transcriptomics, and spatial profiling to investigate immune heterogeneity and disease-associated molecular features. His publications include studies of immune subtypes, tumor immune cell states and treatment-associated inflammation. His interests in this Collection include reproducible inflammatory endotyping and the biological interpretation of molecular signatures.