Objective The symptoms of complex disease like allergy, obesity and cancer depend on the products of multiple interacting genes. High-throughput techniques have implicated hundreds of genes. There are also considerable individual variations. A clinical implication of this may be inadequate treatment response, which is increasingly recognized as a cause of increased suffering and costs. Ideally, physicians should be able to routinely personalize medication based on a few diagnostic markers. Finding such markers is a formidable challenge. We hypothesize that translational clinical studies based on high-throughput genomics, advanced computing and systems biology may help to identify markers for personalized medication in complex diseases. We organize disease-associated genes in networks that are analyzed in a top-down manner. First, modules of interacting genes with distinct biological functions are identified. Then the modules are dissected to find pathways and finally upstream genes with key regulatory functions. We use bioinformatic methods that were recently described by us in Nature Genetics and Nature Biotechnology. An important focus of this project is to develop these methods to form multi-layer modules that integrate information about disease-associated changes on the DNA, RNA and protein levels. Since these levels interact, studies of the different levels can be interactively used to cross-validate the modules. This involves both genetic and experimental studies, but the ultimate test of the modules will be if they can be used for clinical predictions. For example, changes in RNA expression may be caused by a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in a regulatory region. If so, the corresponding protein is tried as a marker to personalize medication. We have chosen hay fever as a model of complex disease because it is common, well-defined and readily examined in clinical and experimental studies. However, the methods may be generally applicable to complex diseases. Fields of science medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugsnatural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinsnatural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsnucleotidesnatural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsRNAmedical and health scienceshealth sciencesnutritionobesity Keywords allergic rhinitis allergy microarrays systems biology Programme(s) FP7-HEALTH - Specific Programme "Cooperation": Health Topic(s) HEALTH-2007-2.1.2-5 - Multidisciplinary fundamental genomics and molecular biology approaches to study basic biological processes relevant to health and diseases Call for proposal FP7-HEALTH-2007-B See other projects for this call Funding Scheme CP-FP - Small or medium-scale focused research project Coordinator Linköping University EU contribution € 492 991,20 Address Campus valla 581 83 Linköping Sweden See on map Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Helena Blackert (Ms.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data Participants (5) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE United States EU contribution No data Address White avenue 1534 37996 1529 Knoxville See on map Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact E. Christine Cox (Ms.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE United Kingdom EU contribution € 353 640,00 Address South kensington campus exhibition road SW7 2AZ London See on map Region London Inner London — West Westminster Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Michael Robinson (Mr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data CENIX BIOSCIENCE GMBH Germany EU contribution € 166 800,00 Address Tatzberg 47 01307 Dresden See on map Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Administrative Contact Karen Huppertz (Ms.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data GOETEBORGS UNIVERSITET Sweden EU contribution € 777 537,80 Address Vasaparken 405 30 Goeteborg See on map Region Södra Sverige Västsverige Västra Götalands län Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Margareta Ahlqwist (Dr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data OSLO UNIVERSITETSSYKEHUS HF Norway EU contribution € 734 919,00 Address Kirkeveien 166 tarnbygget 0450 Oslo See on map Region Norge Oslo og Viken Oslo Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Gunhild Mælandsmo (Prof.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data