Objective
The proposed Concerted Action project will examine the relationship between allergenic potential of plant proteins, their molecular structure and biological properties with a view to improving predictive models of allergenicity. This will be achieved by:
1. Assessing the relationship between biological activities, associated structures and allergenic potential;
2. Establishing the effect of biological activities and food component interactions on allergen absorption and immune system activation;
3. Establishing criteria for inclusion of allergen data in database structures developed under the NEITOX CA (Partners 1 and 2);
4. Developing a test-bank of plant food allergens for diagnosis and investigation of allergic disease.
This project brings together a unique combination of experts in clinical aspects of allergic disease, gastrointestinal absorption of allergens, food chemistry, process technology, plant biochemistry, molecular biology and plant breeding. The importance of the issues covered by the project to consumer health and well being is emphasised by the participation of consumer organisations. National and regional activities must be concerted at the European level to tackle this issue which needs to be addressed in order to enable European companies to exploit biotechnological innovations in crop production, and hence maintain their competitiveness in the global market place.
In addition to coordinating existing efforts in the above areas in Europe, the programme will seek to define topics where further R and D is essential to ensure the development of benefits to endusers. It is anticipated that exploitation opportunities will be pursued through joint academic and industrial collaborative research. The project partnership will be divided into three working groups addressing areas of clinical research, food structure and plant biochemistry. The chairs of each working group will, together with the coordinator, form a management team responsible for overseeing the project.
Dissemination of information and results includes a web page, newsletters and publications. An international conference will be organised and the proceedings published in book form. Exploitation will be effected through the industrial partners. Benefits will accrue to: European agricultural industries - through more effective exploitation of biotechnology to produce superior food crops; European food manufacturers - through more effective strategies for reducing the allergenicity of food ingredients; European consumers - through improved diagnosis and treatment of food allergies and increased opportunities to purchase foods with reduced allergenicity.
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.
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 medicineallergologyfood allergy
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesdatabases
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicineimmunology
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagricultureagronomyplant breeding
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmolecular biology
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Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CON - Coordination of research actionsCoordinator
NR4 7UA Norwich
United Kingdom