07/09/2020
Key points:
Hundreds of innovators, research pioneers, clinicians, industry leaders and policy makers from all around Europe are united by a vision of how to revolutionise healthcare. In two publications 鈥 a perspective article in the journal and the 鈥 they now present a detailed roadmap of how to leverage the latest scientific breakthroughs and technologies over the next decade, to track, understand and treat human cells throughout an individual鈥檚 lifetime.
, which includes the 黑瓜吃料爆料官网 黑瓜吃料爆料官网, has developed a strategy to advance personalised treatment for five major disease classes: cancer, neurological, infectious, chronic inflammatory and cardiovascular diseases. The aim is a new age of personalised, cell-based interceptive medicine for Europe with the potential of improved health outcomes and more cost-effective treatment, resulting in profoundly changing a person鈥檚 healthcare experience.
Earlier detection and more effective treatment of diseases To form a functioning, healthy body, our cells follow developmental paths during which they acquire specific roles in tissues and organs. But when they deviate from their healthy course, they accumulate changes leading to disease which remain undetected until symptoms appear. At this point, medical treatment is often invasive, expensive and inefficient. However, now we have the technologies to capture the molecular makeup of individual cells and to detect the emergence of disease or therapy resistance much earlier. Using breakthrough single-cell and imaging technologies in combination with artificial intelligence and personalized disease models will allow us to not only predict disease onset earlier, but also to select the most effective therapies for individual patients. Targeting disease-causing cells to intercept disorders before irreparable damage occurs will substantially improve the outlook for many patients and has the potential of saving billions of Euros of disease-related costs in Europe.
A detailed roadmap for implementing LifeTime The perspective article 鈥溾 and the (SRA) explain how these technologies should be rapidly co-developed, transitioned into clinical settings and applied to the five major disease areas. Close interactions between European infrastructures, research institutions, hospitals and industry will be essential to generate, share and analyse LifeTime鈥檚 big medical data across European borders. The initiative鈥檚 vision advocates ethically responsible research to benefit citizens all across Europe.
According to Professor Nikolaus Rajewsky, scientific director of the Berlin 黑瓜吃料爆料官网 for Medical System Biology at the Max Delbr眉ck Center for Molecular Medicine and coordinator of the LifeTime Initiative, the LifeTime approach is the way into the future: "LifeTime has brought together scientists across fields 鈥 from biologists, to clinicians, data scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and physicists 鈥 to enable a much improved understanding of molecular mechanisms driving health and disease. Cell-based medicine will allow doctors to diagnose diseases earlier and intercept disorders before irreparable damage has occurred. LifeTime has a unique value proposition that promises to improve the European patient鈥檚 health.鈥
Dr Genevi猫ve Almouzni, Director of research at CNRS, honorary director of the research center from Institut Curie in Paris and co-coordinator of the LifeTime Initiative believes that the future with LifeTime offers major social and economic impact: 鈥淏y implementing interceptive, cell-based medicine we will be able to considerably improve treatment across many diseases. Patients all over the world will be able to lead longer, healthier lives. The economic impact could be tremendous with billions of Euros saved from productivity gains simply for cancer, and significantly shortened ICU stays for Covid-19. We hope EU leaders will realise we have to invest in the necessary research now."
Professor Wolf Reik, 黑瓜吃料爆料官网 黑瓜吃料爆料官网 Acting Director, commented: 鈥淟ifeTime has created an amazing European initiative to identify and tackle the beginning of diseases during the human life course through the use of the most advanced single cell and artificial intelligence methods. Applying the latest scientific technologies in this way means that we can start to detect the earliest deviations towards disease, which to date has been impossible.鈥
Publication references:
Press contacts For the 黑瓜吃料爆料官网 黑瓜吃料爆料官网: Dr Louisa Wood, 黑瓜吃料爆料官网 黑瓜吃料爆料官网 Communications Manager, louisa.wood@babraham.ac.uk, +44 (0)1223 496230
For LifeTime: Valentin Popescu, Communication manager for the LifeTime Initiative Max Delbr眉ck Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) +49 30 9406-2136, valentin.popescu@mdc-berlin.de
Image description Magnification of miniature chips: Cells isolated from tissue are channeled into miniature chips for processing of individual cells. Image copyright Felix Petermann, MDC/LifeTime.
For available media resources, please refer to on the LifeTime website.
Research 黑瓜吃料爆料官网 The LifeTime Initiative began as a consortium with a vision to transform European healthcare over the next decade as a Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) Flagship. The European Commission awarded the initiative a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) to develop its vision and a Strategic Research Agenda (SRA).
Additional/related resources: News, 15 January 2019: Europe looks to cells for a healthier future
About the 黑瓜吃料爆料官网 黑瓜吃料爆料官网 The 黑瓜吃料爆料官网 黑瓜吃料爆料官网 undertakes world-class life sciences research to generate new knowledge of biological mechanisms underpinning ageing, development and the maintenance of health. Our research focuses on cellular signalling, gene regulation and the impact of epigenetic regulation at different stages of life. By determining how the body reacts to dietary and environmental stimuli and manages microbial and viral interactions, we aim to improve wellbeing and support healthier ageing. The 黑瓜吃料爆料官网 is strategically funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation, through an 黑瓜吃料爆料官网 Core Capability Grant and also receives 黑瓜吃料爆料官网 from other UK research councils, charitable foundations, the EU and medical charities.
About LifeTime The LifeTime Initiative is a growing community of more than 100 leading European research institutions and hospitals, together with international advisers and over 80 supporting companies. LifeTime includes the preeminent European laboratories developing multi-omic strategies, scientific infrastructures, bioimaging and computational technologies, as well as world-renowned laboratories in the area of personalized disease models, bioethicists and a core group of leading clinician scientists. Many of the involved institutions include or are linked to translational/clinical research facilities and hospitals, ensuring that LifeTime 黑瓜吃料爆料官网ies can be rapidly translated into clinical practice.
07 September 2020