In a new, EU funded program, early career scientists are tracking down the connection between metabolic disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. DZNE is involved in a leading role.
Bonn, June, 26th, 2023. Again and again, the trail leads to metabolism: When researchers look into the causes of neurodegenerative diseases, they often find cross-links to the metabolic basis of life. For example, people who suffer from diabetes, a well-known disorder of metabolism, have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. "Recently, there has been increasing evidence that metabolism and neurodegeneration are related," says Dr. Dan Ehninger of the DZNE: "We now want to fundamentally investigate the connection." With the new ETERNITY program, a cluster of excellence is to be formed throughout Europe for this purpose, in which DZNE is playing a leading role. The core of the program is a doctoral program for young researchers who will specifically address this topic.
Universities, research institutions, and companies across Europe have joined forces to form the network called ETERNITY ("FuEl ThE bRaiN In healtThY aging and age-related diseases"). The EU is funding the project as part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie doctoral programs. Ten doctoral students are selected to conduct research on the joint research topic for three years.
Potential starting points for personalized therapies
The overall goal of ETERNITY is to identify mechanisms by which metabolism responds to environmental influences and pathophysiological changes. This knowledge will identify starting points that can be used for personalized therapies in the future.
"Metabolism in the brain is of particular interest. The brain consumes a lot of the oxygen we take in, and neural activity requires a lot of energy," explains Dan Ehninger. "So, you can imagine that metabolic changes can strongly impact brain function." Indeed, there is increasing evidence of this. Also, metabolism can influence processes that are themselves linked to age-related brain diseases - inflammatory changes in the brain, for example, are influenced by metabolic states. "Evidence for such relationships has already been gathered in fundamental science. We now want to find out more about this," says Ehninger.
Call for proposals aims at pan-European knowledge transfer
Technological progress is helping research: High-tech methods developed in recent years are now making it possible to identify relationships that were previously hidden. As a result, it is now feasible to decipher molecular mechanisms that operate in the background. "For example, modern metabolomic analyses can be used to precisely measure how metabolism takes place in tissue," explains Dan Ehninger. Within the EU-funded training network, ten fundamental questions are being addressed by PhD students. These include the neuronal function of cell regulators, the inflammatory response in the brain to special diets, and the effect of diets on cognitive function. Many of these ten questions thus deal with the connection between molecular processes in the brain and nutrition. This results in ten individual pieces of a mosaic that, taken together, should provide a complex view of the neurodegenerative consequences of altered metabolism.
A novel aspect of the ETERNITY project's approach is that a wide range of expertise is being bundled - from academia and industry and from the participating countries Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Finland and Switzerland. With its funding, the EU aims to support international exchange and collaborative work on complex issues. "The participants will gain experience from academia, industry, as well as other areas," says Dan Ehninger: "We want to train a new generation of scientists who are experts in metabolism and who can work in a well-founded way on the many questions that exist in this field."