Objective
Dietary intake has an enormous impact on aspects of human health, yet scientific consensus about how what we eat affects our biology remains elusive. To address the complex biological impact of diet, I propose to apply an unconventional, ‘humans-as-model-organisms’ approach to compare the molecular and functional effects of a highly structured dietary regime, specified by the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church (EOCC), to the unstructured diet followed by the general population. Individuals who follow the EOCC regime abstain from meat, dairy products and eggs for 180-200 days annually, in a temporally-structured manner initiated in childhood. I aim to explore the biological signatures of structured vs. unstructured diet by addressing three objectives. First I will investigate the effects of the two regimes, and of genetic variation, on higher-level phenotypes including anthropometric, physiological and biomarker traits. Second, I will carry out a comprehensive set of omics assays (metabolomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics and investigation of the gut microbiome), will associate omics phenotypes with genetic variation, and will integrate data across biological levels to uncover complex molecular signatures. Third, I will interrogate the functional consequences of dietary regimes at the cellular level through primary cell culture. Acute and long-term effects of dietary intake will be explored for all objectives through a two timepoint sampling strategy. This proposal therefore comprises a unique opportunity to study a specific perturbation (EOCC structured diet) introduced to a steady-state system (unstructured diet followed by the general population) in a ground-breaking human systems biology type of study. This approach brings together expertise from genomics, computational biology, statistics, medicine and epidemiology. It will lead to novel insights regarding the potent signalling nature of nutrients and is likely to yield results of high translational value.
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.
- medical and health sciences health sciences public health epidemiology
- agricultural sciences animal and dairy science dairy
- medical and health sciences health sciences nutrition
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics epigenetics
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
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.
-
H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme
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.
ERC-STG - Starting Grant
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
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-2016-STG
See all projects funded under this callHost institution
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.
16 672 VARI-ATHENS
Greece
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.