Project Launched by VTT Develops Computer Models for Predicting Dietary Effects on Health

VTT is launching an extensive EU project called ETHERPATHS, studying the effects of dietary effects mediated by gut microbiota on lipid metabolism. The aim is to accelerate the development of health-promoting foods. The project develops computer assisted models with which food companies and research institutions, for instance, will be able to predict the effects of foods in the body.

The ETHERPATHS project focuses on the balance of lipid metabolism in the body, the effects of foods in tissues and the role of gut microbiota in these processes. Lipid metabolism disorders are associated with several common health care problems, such as ageing, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The balance can be influenced by dietary means. The risk of chronic diseases decreases with a diet containing particularly omega-3 fatty acids and foods that contain fibres and phenol. Therefore, fatty fish, berries, fruits and vegetables may be favourable foods in terms of lipid metabolism balance. The body’s own phospholipids are assumed to mediate the health-promoting effects, but their mechanisms of action are still unknown.

The project develops computer-assisted models that emulate the changes in lipid metabolism brought about by eating fish and vegetable oil, berries, fruits and vegetables. The use of models makes it easier to combine data from animal studies and cell-level data in the interpretation of research data from clinical trials, thus promoting research in the health effects of foods and development of foodstuffs. The results of the project and the tools developed in it will in time also be available to in addition to food companies to companies and research institutions that develop diagnostics of health and disease.

The coordinator of the ETHERPATHS project is VTT's Research Professor Matej Oresic. The total project budget for 2009–2012 is EUR 8 million, of which VTT's share is EUR 2.5 million. The project involves a total of 10 European research institutions and companies.

The project partners are: VTT (Finland), University of Barcelona (Spain), University of Gothenburg (Sweden), University of Cambridge (United Kingdom), Institute for Systems Biology SPb (Russia), Federico II University of Naples (Italy), Noray Bioinformatics S.L.U. (Spain), BioMotif AB (Sweden), Advion Biosciences, Ltd. (United Kingdom) and Nestle Research Center (Switzerland). The project is part of the EU FP7 Cooperation Work Programme: Food, agriculture and fisheries, and biotechnology programme (KBBE-2007-2-2-08).

About VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is the biggest contract research organization in Northern Europe. VTT provides high-end technology solutions and innovation services. From its wide knowledge base, VTT can combine different technologies, create new innovations and a substantial range of world-class technologies and applied research services, thus improving its clients' competitiveness and competence. Through its international scientific and technology network, VTT can produce information, upgrade technology knowledge and create business intelligence and value added to its stakeholders. For more information, visit http://www.vtt.fi.

Most Popular Now

AstraZeneca enters license agreement with KYM Bios…

AstraZeneca and KYM Biosciences Inc.* have entered into a global exclusive licence agreement for CMG901, a potential first-in-class antibody drug conjugate (ADC) targetin...

Pfizer's elranatamab receives FDA and EMA filing a…

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Priority Review for the company's Biologics License Application (BLA) ...

Pfizer receives positive FDA Advisory Committee vo…

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) voted that avail...

US FDA Advisory Committee votes to support effecti…

GSK plc (LSE/NYSE: GSK) announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) voted that the avail...

First nasal monoclonal antibody treatment for COVI…

A pilot trial by investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, tested the nasal administration of the ...

"Semantic similarity" leads to novel dru…

The words that researchers use to describe their results can be harnessed to discover potential new treatments for Parkinson's disease, according to a new study published...

Tumour cells' response to chemotherapy is driven b…

Cancer cells have an innate randomness in their ability to respond to chemotherapy, which is another tool in their arsenal of resisting treatment, new research led by the...

Nanosatellite shows the way to RNA medicine of the…

The RNA molecule is commonly recognized as messenger between DNA and protein, but it can also be folded into intricate molecular machines. An example of a naturally occur...

Gene and cell therapies to combat pancreatic cance…

Pancreatic cancer is an incurable form of cancer, and gene therapies are currently in clinical testing to treat this deadly disease. A comprehensive review of the gene an...

Engineered bacteria find tumors, then alert the au…

Combining discoveries in cancer immunology with sophisticated genetic engineering, Columbia University researchers have created a sort of "bacterial suicide squad" that ...

Digital twin opens way to effective treatment of i…

Inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis have complex disease mechanisms that can differ from patient to patient with the same diagnosis. This means that currently...

AI conjures proteins that speed up chemical reacti…

For the first time, scientists have used machine learning to create brand-new enzymes, which are proteins that accelerate chemical reactions. This is an important step in...