Objective
The development of obesity in industrial and low-and middle-income countries is leading to a severe burden for patients and health care systems based on associated comorbidities as cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Apart from the genetic background, epigenetic modifications like DNA methylation are supposed to play an important role for body weight regulation. So far, epigenome-wide association studies were not able to elucidate this relationship, as most methylation differences were related to a genetic variant. Therefore, the identification of the POMC (pro-opiomelanocortin) gene, a key factor for hypothalamic body weight regulation, as a metastable epiallele in humans, was of importance to understand how methylation variability affect the individual phenotype. Metastable epialleles are methylome-regions, which are non-genetically determined, stochastically regulated and set in early embryonic development. Furthermore, they are non-tissue specific, stable over time and modified by Carbon-1 metabolites in-utero. However, their role for human diseases remained unclear. Within this application, I want to elucidate and characterize how epigenetic modifications as metastable epialleles modulate human susceptibility and predisposition to metabolic and endocrine diseases and analyse the impact of environmental factors. To achieve this goal, I propose a unique approach using advanced technologies to analyse human postmortem samples and human embryonic stem cells to identify new metastable epialleles in humans and elucidate new mechanisms and relationships between phenotypic variation and methylation variability. The combination of the algorithm to identify methylation variability and the use of stem cell models to functionally characterize epigenetic variants will be a blueprint for the analysis of the epigenetic contribution for other endocrine, neurological or cardiovascular diseases and will generate a powerful resource for researchers worldwide.
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 endocrinology diabetes
- medical and health sciences health sciences nutrition obesity
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics epigenetics
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
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.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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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.
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.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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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.
(opens in new window) ERC-2021-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
10117 Berlin
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.