Objective
Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress allows cells to cope with misfolded proteins through the Unfolded Protein Response (UPR). We have recently reported that unabated ER stress, a consequence of genetic deletion of X-box binding protein-1 (XBP1), in intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) leads to intestinal inflammation reminiscent of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and polymorphisms in XBP1 were associated with Crohn s disease and ulcerative colitis.
The current proposal is based on this central discovery, and rests on three major pillars. 1. Elucidation of the molecular pathways that connect unabated ER stress with inflammation, with the potential to identify novel therapeutics. 2. Testing the hypothesis that XBP1 deficiency may regulate colorectal cancer development, both sporadic and inflammation-associated. 3. Addressing the hypothesis that XBP1 and ER stress may contribute to the molecular pathology of primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) via affecting cholangiocyte biology. Insight from these studies may have implications well beyond mucosal inflammation as ER stress mechanisms have been suggested to play a role in a wide variety of diseases.
Fields of science
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicinegastroenterologyinflammatory bowel disease
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteins
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicineoncologycolorectal cancer
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepathology
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinephysiologyhomeostasis
Call for proposal
ERC-2010-StG_20091118
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
ERC-SG - ERC Starting GrantHost institution
CB2 1TN Cambridge
United Kingdom