Three Catalan centers participate in HEALS project
This 5-year European initiative aims to map all exposures to toxins and environmental risk factors over our lifetime.
The Barcelona Science Park (PCB), the Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA-CSIC) and the Rovira i Virgili University (URV) Center for Environmental, Food and Toxicological Technology (TecnATox) are three of the 29 European partners participating in the recently launched HEALS project (Health and Environment-wide Associations based on Large Population Surveys). It aims to map the “exposome”, which is a map to reliably, simultaneously measure all exposures to environmental toxins and genetic variations, in order to study the diseases they may lead to.
The study focuses on particularly susceptible segments of the population, like children, pregnant women and the elderly, to analyze asthma and allergies, neurologic development and neurodegenerative disorders, obesity and childhood diabetes. UV radiation, noise and socioeconomic and nutritional issues will be taken into account in order to design tools to assess the health effects of exposure to these risk factors.
The PCB, through the Experimental Toxicology and Ecotoxicology Unit (UTOX) and Proteomics Platform, will be in charge of in vitro toxicology techniques and modeling tasks. IDAEA-CSIC will analyze organic compounds found in participants’ diet or surroundings, and their effect on health. And TecnATox will coordinate dissemination and knowledge-transfer activities, as well as developing a pharmacokinetic model.
Funded under the 7th Framework Program, the project has a budget of €14.8 millions to coordinate the 15 countries involved over 5 years. The HEALS project is led by the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) in Paris.
More information is available on the official website of the project or on the PCB site.