FUNCTIONAL CHARACTERISATION OF COLORECTAL CANCER PREDISPOSITION GENES AND DEVELOPMENT OF INTERMEDIATE BIOMARKERS OF DISEASE RISK

Project Information

CRCINTERMPHEN

Grant agreement ID: 301077

Project closed

Start date 26 October 2012

End date 25 October 2014

Funded under

• Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Total cost € 209 033,40

EU contribution € 209 033,40

Coordinated by

THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
United Kingdom

Objective

"Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers in both men and women in the EU. Recent advances in CRC genetics, largely through genome-wide association studies (GWAS), have identified 17 common polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with increased CRC risk in the general population. The SNPs only account for a minority of the genetic variation in CRC and genotyping these SNPs alone is not a sufficiently powerful risk predictor to be used in clinical practice. However, whilst the nature of the functional variation correlated with these SNPs is largely unknown, the CRC GWAS have provided excellent evidence for some of the important molecular pathways that influence disease risk, including bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signalling and telomere length. These discoveries raise the important possibility that we can use intermediate molecular phenotypes as surrogate markers of genetic variation, thus allowing much better prediction of CRC risk. For example, although we would not know all the polymorphisms or mutations that impacted on an individual’s BMP signalling, by measuring that pathway’s activity, we could sum the effects of those genetic variants and provide a clinically-useful means of assessing CRC risk. In this proposal, I shall determine whether candidate molecular pathways can be used as intermediate phenotypes to predict CRC risk. I shall study not only BMP signalling and telomere length, but also candidate phenotypes such as stem cell markers, apoptosis/senescence markers and Wnt pathway activity. The national bowel cancer screening programme in the UK allows normal colorectal mucosa to be obtained readily, so as to build up a bank of tissue from patients with and without CRC. For each molecular phenotype, I shall (a) develop assays, (b) assess each patient and (c) test for associations with known CRC risk SNPs and overall disease risk. The finding of strong risk predictors would allow preventive measures to be targeted to those at highest risk of CRC."

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

• natural sciences › biological sciences › biochemistry › biomolecules › proteins
• medical and health sciences › medical biotechnology › cells technologies › stem cells
• medical and health sciences › clinical medicine › oncology › colorectal cancer
• natural sciences › biological sciences › genetics › mutation

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Programme(s)

• FP7-PEOPLE - Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Topic(s)

• FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF - Marie-Curie Action: "Intra-European fellowships for career development"

Call for proposal

FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

MC-IEF - Intra-European Fellowships (IEF)

Coordinator

THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

• EU contribution: € 209 033,40
• Address: WELLINGTON SQUARE UNIVERSITY OFFICES ; OX1 2JD Oxford ; United Kingdom
• Region: South East (England) › Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire › Oxfordshire
• Activity type: Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
• Total cost: No data