Project description
A genome health indicator for smarter environmental monitoring
While assessing the environmental risks of chemical pollution hinges on the accurate measurement of contaminant concentrations, this approach fails to account for the complex reality of natural ecosystems, where animals are simultaneously exposed to diverse mixtures of chemicals. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the GENHANCE project will develop a genome health indicator (GHI) that links DNA adduct fingerprints (molecular signatures of contaminant exposure) to reproductive disorders in amphipods, a key sentinel species used in Baltic Sea monitoring. The main objective is to discover diagnostic markers, identify thresholds of ecological effect, and incorporate them into predictive models. Ultimately, GENHANCE will empower regulators to assess ecosystem health with greater accuracy in order to strengthen chemical risk management frameworks.
Objective
Environmental assessment of chemical contaminants still relies largely on concentration measurements, while biological effect methods remain underused, being viewed as less precise or harder to interpret. Yet such methods are essential for detecting mixture effects and showing when exposure translates into ecological risk under real-world conditions. DNA adductomics offers a way forward: by profiling modifications of nucleic acids in wildlife, it produces molecular fingerprints that often reveal contaminant sources and toxic mechanisms, capturing both exposure and its biological consequences.
To give these fingerprints ecological meaning, they must be anchored in a sentinel species with well-established health endpoints. Amphipods provide this anchor, as their reproductive disorders are sensitive indicators of developmental toxicity from sediment contamination and are already applied in the Baltic monitoring programmes. Building on this foundation, GENHANCE will develop a Genome Health Indicator (GHI) that connects adductome fingerprints with reproductive disorders as organism-level outcomes in amphipods.
GENHANCE integrates field evidence from amphipod samples from the long-term Baltic monitoring with controlled bioassays and mesocosm experiments to identify diagnostic adductome signatures, establish thresholds that separate background variation from contaminant-induced injury, and develop a multimetric GHI. Embedding this indicator into weight-of-evidence frameworks with chemical and organism-level data will advance biological effect methods from descriptive to predictive tools.
Secondments at HELCOM and the Estonian Environment Agency will ensure regulatory uptake, testing GHIs in regional assessments and national monitoring. GENHANCE thus advances mechanistic ecotoxicology at the basic science level while delivering decision-ready tools that strengthen Europe’s leadership in exposomics, risk forecasting, MSFD implementation, and One Health protection.
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
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics genomes
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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)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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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.
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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-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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10691 Stockholm
Sweden
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