Obesity and diabetes impact health and have become a great burden to society. Incidences of diabetes are estimated to double by 2030, jeopardizing human health and reducing our quality of life. The EU, WHO, governments and other organizations are investing major resources to reduce the burden of this “metabolic syndrome” through better education, prevention and therapies.
Our MSCA ITN Network ChroMe (Chromatin & Metabolism) is embedded within this scientific context. Our objectives have been to exploit developments taking place in our molecular understanding of chromatin-metabolism interactions and to set the stage for novel therapeutic applications. In parallel, our goal has been to train and develop young scientists in metabolic health and provide human capital to promote healthy aging.
We have focused our attention on obesity and diabetes, which have multiple causes in our genes, nutrition and lifestyle. The overconsumption of simple sugars and alcohol, high-fat diets and/or insufficient physical activity all contribute to metabolic disorders. Metabolic enzymes, gene regulators and chromatin factors determine how nutrients affect health and disease and these proteins represent excellent drug targets. Our network’s goals were to understand how chromatin is steered by metabolism to sustain health or cause disease, and to exploit our new knowledge and expertise to develop therapies. We established an educational, networking and career development platform that allowed our ESRs to exploit the translational value of chromatin factors as promising therapeutic targets and to become highly skilled and networked practicioners of this forefront research area in biomedicine.
ChroMe’s training objectives were to: (1) Transmit broad interdisciplinary knowledge of biochemistry, epigenetics, systems biology, physiology and clinical medicine to study metabolic health and disease and to allow our ESRs to establish experimentally testable hypotheses and biomedical innovation. (2) Train advanced technical skills for hypothesis-driven research and ‘omics’ approaches, from genomes to molecules (e.g. metabolites), cells, organs and live animals, including a major, longitudinal training platform on bioinformatics, which medicine rely on in the 21st century. (3) Build clinical awareness. We will train the ability to identify unmet clinical needs and key opportunities that could improve the management of metabolic diseases. (4) Build experience to exploit opportunities by finding collaborators, approaches and resources. (5) Provide our ESRs with timely, personalized, entrepreneurial and industry-relevant transferable skills in management and communication in the field of metabolic diseases. (6) Establish a network of metabolic health peers, colleagues and employers, catalyzing ESR career progression in academia, biotech, pharma, and other health science sectors.
ChroMe addressed our objectives through advanced and collaborative research projects, research training and networking instruments, including intersectorial projects and secondments, transferable skill development, integration with local training and a dedicated mentoring team for each ESR, the exposure of our ESRs to a global community of experts and peer networking, advanced training in innovative technologies, bioinformatics and translational science, network-wide transferable skills (IPR, exploitation, career orientation, communication, project- and conflict-management, gender issues, teamwork, research integrity) and the participation of patient support groups and of each ESR in public engagement activities.
