Objective
Deep environmental sequencing (metagenomics) will be used to characterize microbial communities associated with 3 different cancer types: cervical cancer, oral squamous cell carcinoma and colorectal cancer. For all 3 types, non-invasive molecular diagnostics and prognostics are feasible via utilization of vaginal, oral and faecal samples, respectively. The project consequently aims to identify microbial markers in these ¿readouts¿ that correlate with cancer presence or progression. Microbial markers can be individual species or specific community compositions, but also particular genes or pathways. The microbial communities will be sampled locally at tumor surfaces and in healthy control tissues. After DNA extraction and sequencing, a complex bioinformatics pipeline will be developed to characterise the microbiomes and to identify the cancer-specific functional and phylogenetic markers therein. For colorectal cancer, the project intends to go into more details in that it tries i) to establish a correlation of microbiota with cancer progression and it ii) explores differences between distinct cancer subtypes. For each of the 3 cancer types, at least two samples from 40 individuals will be sequenced (as well as controls) at a depth of at least 5Gb each using Illumina technology. This is expected to be sufficient for the identification of microbial markers and also allows superficial genotyping of the individuals at ca 2-3x coverage as a by-product (the samples will contain considerable amounts of human DNA). Further analyses will be designed to study the potential of certain microbial species or community compositions to enhance or even cause one or more of the 3 cancers. The discovery of such causations will open up research towards directed antimicrobial treatment.
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.
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.
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics DNA
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology skin cancer squamous cell carcinoma
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology colorectal cancer
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology cervical cancer
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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.
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.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
ERC-2010-AdG_20100317
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.
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.
Host institution
69117 Heidelberg
Germany
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.