Project description
Brain metabolism: a new diagnostic for neurodegeneration
Diagnosis of neurodegenerative disorders is challenging and usually takes place too late, when symptoms such as memory or motor deficits are evident. At this stage, patients have suffered neuronal damage which prevents any further treatment. Funded by the European Research Council, the NeuroHyp project introduces the novel concept of monitoring metabolic changes in the brain as a diagnostic modality for the onset of neurodegeneration. The project capitalises on previously developed contrast MRI agents that can pick up differences in metabolites in the brain with diagnostic accuracy. The project will undertake the necessary activities to develop this technology into a clinical solution for the non-invasive diagnosis of neurodegenerative disorders.
Objective
Despite decades of research, neurodegenerative diseases remain challenging to diagnose and identify on time. At the point external symptoms, such as memory or motor deficits become evident, the patient has usually suffered irreparable neuronal damage.
This not only decreases life quality and expectancy of the patient, but also severely limits our ability to design new effective treatments and apply existing ones in a timely manner. A promising approach for early diagnosis could be the visualisation of metabolic changes in the brain. There are specific differences in the points of origin for different neurodegenerative diseases. The fact that the metabolism of neurons change when they are exposed to internal or external stressors, makes detecting changes in the metabolism of specific brain regions in comparison to the rest of the organ a possible powerful tool to early diagnose the onset of neurodegeneration.
During the course of my ERC starting grant my team and I have developed new magnetic resonance technologies and contrast agents based on body own metabolites. These metabolic contrast agents can not only visualize overall metabolism of observed tissues but also show differences in the rate of resulting metabolites, further increasing the potential diagnostic accuracy. Before the developments made in my ERC project, especially a fast and simple approach to obtain such contrast agents was out of reach. In first experiments we provided evidence that my approach can be used to detect the onsets of Parkinsons disease, one severe neurodegenerative illness.
With the project outlined in this PoC we now aim to determine the feasibility of our technology as a clinical solution and a business opportunity, to enable timely, straight forward, fast and non-invasive diagnosis for neurodegenerative diseases. The success of this project will be the first important step to bring our technology into the clinics and improve patients health on a global scale in the future.
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 neurobiology
- medical and health sciences basic medicine neurology parkinson
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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.
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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-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept 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-2022-POC2
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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.
80539 MUNCHEN
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.