17. October 2011 12:40
Nature Immunology publishes ESF recommendations for research into link between genes and environment in chronic inflammatory diseases
The dramatic and continuing proliferation of chronic inflammatory diseases such as diabetes, asthma, and allergy among industrialized countries is now accepted as being caused by a combination of environmental and individual genetic risk factors.
Identifying the detailed links between specific genes and external factors such as diet and pollution has proved difficult, but is necessary in order to find treatments and has therefore become an urgent research priority. The European Science Foundation (ESF) has now clarified the research priorities, which include focusing on comparisons between the internal populations of micro-organisms in people with and without chronic inflammatory diseases of the various categories. This exercise was conducted as an ESF Forward Look on the request of the European Medical Research Councils, and its findings, illuminating the course of future chronic disease research in Europe, have been published as an interim commentary in Nature Immunology.
The final report of the GENESIS Forward Look, including the overall consensus recommendations and background will be published in the coming months as an ESF publication as in its entirety as a special supplement to the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI).
- Links:
- Link to article: www.nature.com/ni/journal/v12/n4/full/ni0411-273.html
Media contact:
- Ms. Shira TabachnikoffE-Mail
Science contact:
- Dr. Lars KristiansenE-Mail
