APO-SYS Consortium
Apoptosis Systems Biology Applied to Cancer and AIDS
An integrated approach of experimental biology, data mining, mathematical modeling, biostatistics, system engineering and molecular medicine
Research
Project Objectives
The consortium will have the following main objectives:
- Create a unique database integrating existing and
accumulating knowledge on lethal signal transduction pathways
leading to apoptosis or non-apoptotic (necrotic, autophagic,
mitotic) cell death
- Perform data mining to integrate system-wide analyses on
cell death (genome, epigenome, transcriptome, lipidome data
- Use high-throughput methods for experimental exploration
of death pathways in human cell lines in vitro and in relevant human
disease models (in vitro in human cells and in vivo in mice and
Drosophila)
- Establish mathematical models of lethal pathways to devise
algorithms that predict apoptosis susceptibility and resistance
- Obtain data on clinical samples and perform
bio-statistical analyses on them in order to demonstrate the
contribution of apoptotic process in human cancers and AIDS
- Integrate the knowledge into mathematical models for
optimal interpretation of clinical data, aiming at optimal
diagnostics and prognostic performances as well as at the
identification of possible therapeutic targets for the treatment of
cancer and AIDS.
The APO-SYS consortium involving experimental biologists, biomathematicians, biostatistitions and clinical scientists will team up to approach cell death signaling in health and disease placing particular emphasis on cancer and AIDS.
Workplan
The project will be structured in a series of interdependent 18 work packages (WP) that are interwoven in the following fashion:
