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Approved Research

A multi-omics strategy to characterize the causes of cardio- and cerebrovascular diseases

Principal Investigator: Professor Guillaume Lettre
Approved Research ID: 62518
Approval date: January 29th 2021

Lay summary

A) Rationale. Healthy blood vessels are critical to prevent the development of diseases such as heart attack, stroke and dementia, which have an important economical and societal burden in the world. Many risk factors (e.g. obesity, high blood pressure) affect both these diseases of the heart and the brain. In this project, we aim to better understand the different genetic and environmental causes of heart and brain diseases characterized by unhealthy blood vessels.

B) Question and Aims. We want to understand why some individuals suffer from heart and brain diseases, whereas others don't. In particular, our project will help us identify specific genes which contribute to disease risk (or protection). We will combine this genetic information with other environmental variables (e.g. diet, exercise) and clinical parameters (e.g. cholesterol levels) to develop methods that can predict individuals at higher risk of disease. We will also use the genetic information to better understand what molecules are responsible for disease risk; these molecules could become interesting drug targets.

C) Project duration. This project will last three years.

D) Impact. Heart and brain diseases caused by unhealthy blood vessels are responsible for an important morbidity and mortality. We expect that our project will generate tools to predict disease risk and will help guide the development of more efficacious drug targets.