Project description
Revisiting neurodegeneration at the synapses
Neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases are characterised by the misfolding and aggregation of specific proteins. While a lot of research has focused on neuron degeneration, there is growing evidence indicating that these diseases may actually begin at synapses. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the SYNDEGEN project will bring together experts in the field to investigate the physiological role of these proteins and how they are implicated in synaptic dysfunction. The consortium will focus on providing comprehensive training to the next generation of researchers in the field, thereby facilitating new understanding and the development of novel therapeutic approaches.
Objective
Neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) of aging are a growing burden on societies. Although studies on the degeneration of neurons have been a main focus of research, increasing evidence points to synapses as the site where Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Huntington’s disease (HD) begin. There is growing evidence that synapses are sites of early and aberrant protein misfolding, aggregation and spread in NDDs. A key problem in research on NDDs has been that the normal physiological roles at synapses of the aggregation-prone proteins (β- amyloid/amyloid precursor protein, tau, α-synuclein and huntingtin), which are linked pathologically and genetically to these diseases, are not known. Using cutting-edge technologies and multidisciplinary approaches the SYNDEGEN consortium aims to bring together leading experts in cell biology, synapse biology and imaging, stem cell biology and NDDs in Europe to determine the molecular and cellular mechanisms whereby synapses become dysfunctional in AD, PD and HD for the purpose of developing novel therapies. The goal of the consortium is to train talented young scientists in interdisciplinary, innovative and collaborative research aimed at the development of novel molecular based treatment strategies for these major diseases of aging. A gap in the training of students in these important diseases is that disease expertise and novel methods to study synapses are localized in isolated groups in different locations in the EU. Similar questions are being asked about the mechanisms of synaptic dysfunction in AD, PD and HD, but no one university or company has sufficiently broad knowledge and technical expertise required to study and develop therapies for synaptic dysfunction in these disorders. This training programme will be implemented in 6 academic centres and 2 SMEs representing a comprehensive, highly interactive and multidisciplinary partnership.
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.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicineneurologydementiaalzheimer
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinephysiologypathophysiology
- medical and health sciencesmedical biotechnologycells technologiesstem cells
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinsprotein folding
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicineneurologyparkinson
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Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-ITN-ETN - European Training NetworksCoordinator
22100 Lund
Sweden