Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS
Content archived on 2024-06-18

Genome-Wide Search for Pleiotropic Genes Governing Vertebral Fractures

Objective

Vertebral fractures (VertFrx) are the most common osteoporotic fractures, with a prevalence of 30%-50% in people over age 50; these fractures are accompanied by severe consequences. Despite the enormous personal and public health impact of VertFrx, the underlying biologic mechanisms remain largely unknown. VertFrx are heritable, however, their genetics have not been systematically studied. We hypothesize that VertFrx, as well as their risk factors, - bone mineral density (BMD), bone geometry, and muscle mass, - are governed by shared genetic polymorphisms, which will be discovered by a multi-trait genome-wide association study (GWAS).
During a 4-year period, we will explore the following Specific Aims:
1) to obtain data from five musculoskeletal phenotypes: (1) VertFrx; (2) vertebral volumetric BMD (vBMD); (3) vertebral cross-sectional area (CSA); (4) paraspinal muscle area; (5) paraspinal muscle attenuation (density) at the level of the third lumbar vertebra (L3) using existing CT scans in adult men and women of European descent.
2) to identify genetic regions shared among VertFrx and vertebral vBMD, bone CSA, and paraspinal muscle area and density at the level of L3, by meta-analysis of GWAS results from several collaborating cohorts.
3) to replicate the association of potentially-pleiotropic polymorphisms identified in aim 2, using the the VertFrx phenotype in a large European consortium (GEFOS/GENOMOS).
4) to validate the expression of top novel genes in primary bone and muscle cells, and osteoblast-like, osteocyte-like, and myoblasts-like cell lines, and assess functional polymorphisms using several bone and muscle cell lines, and whole tissue samples.
The outcome of this project will be a list of replicated pleiotropic polymorphisms with evidence of functional significance. An additional goal of this project is to help integrating an expert in the genetic epidemiology of aging-related diseases, as a faculty member in the newly-formed Faculty of Medicine.

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: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

FP7-PEOPLE-2012-CIG
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MC-CIG - Support for training and career development of researcher (CIG)

Coordinator

BAR ILAN UNIVERSITY
EU contribution
€ 100 000,00
Address
BAR ILAN UNIVERSITY CAMPUS
52900 Ramat Gan
Israel

See on map

Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

No data
My booklet 0 0