Project description
Tackling the health risks of air pollution and transportation noise
Cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, mental, and metabolic diseases are on the rise, fuelled by environmental risks like air pollution and traffic noise. Together, these factors contribute to premature deaths and significant loss of healthy life years in Europe. Yet, their combined effects remain poorly understood, and current exposure limits often fall short of WHO standards. Critical knowledge gaps, especially concerning ultrafine particles and the brain-heart axis, hinder effective policy and health interventions. To address these issues, the EU-funded MARKOPOLO project will develop a pioneering translational approach. Combining advanced experimental models, multiomic techniques, and societal impact studies, it aims to identify disease biomarkers, unravel molecular pathways, and improve risk assessments, ultimately shaping better guidelines and mitigation strategies.
Objective
Air pollution, especially particulate matter (PM), and traffic noise are major intertwined environmental risks. They contribute to the incidence of cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, mental, and metabolic, so-called non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Air pollution contributes to annual premature deaths (0.5 million) and traffic noise to loss of 1.6 million healthy life years in Europe. Critical issues are that noise and PM are underrepresented in clinical guidelines and that European legal exposure limits exceed WHO standards, also due to a limited understanding of knowledge transfer and success metrics. Significant knowledge gaps are related to additive effects of PM and noise, the role of ultrafine particle (UFP), adverse brain-heart axis signaling, and the consequences for vulnerable groups such as high-risk patients and the elderly.
We address these critical health issues of traffic noise and air pollution (PM incl. UFP) by a unique translational approach using experimental and computational models in clinical, interventional, and epidemiological studies. A primary goal is to identify disease-relevant biomarkers and understand the molecular pathways of cerebral, pulmonary and cardiovascular NCDs, also by effective translation of animal findings to human health. Our “bench to life” approach on brain-heart axis is entirely driven by profound preclinical mechanistic knowledge and will use novel Multiomics methodology (e.g. redox/phospho-proteomics, “spatial” epigenetics) allowing analysis of key pathomechanisms, to be included in exposure-response models. This will improve risk assessment and allow evaluation of the effectiveness of mitigation strategies. We will also consider the societal circumstances and policies at the national level and their impact on different stakeholders. MARKOPOLO will advance our understanding of the complex interplay between noise, air pollution, and human well-being and provide clearer information and guidelines for various stakeholders.
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.
This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.
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.
This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins proteomics
- social sciences sociology governance
- medical and health sciences health sciences public health epidemiology
- natural sciences computer and information sciences knowledge engineering
- natural sciences computer and information sciences artificial intelligence machine learning
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.2.1 - Health
MAIN PROGRAMME
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HORIZON.2.1.1 - Health throughout the Life Course
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HORIZON.2.1.2 - Environmental and Social Health Determinants
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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-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
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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) HORIZON-HLTH-2024-ENVHLTH-02-two-stage
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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.
55131 Mainz
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.