Another international research success: with CLARITY-PD, DPU is once again involved in a Horizon Europe project.
Expertise in Neurodegenerative Research
The five-year research project brings together 20 partner organisations from Europe, Israel and Canada and has a total project volume of around €7.8 million. Around €350,000 of this funding is allocated to DPU.
Under the title “Causal Links of Air Pollution, Pesticides, and Heavy Metals in Parkinson’s Disease”, CLARITY-PD investigates the causal contribution that environmental exposures such as air pollution, pesticides and heavy metals may make to the development and progression of Parkinson’s disease. The project combines environmental and exposure research with biomarker analyses, experimental disease models, digital monitoring and explainable AI-based risk models. More than 5,000 retrospective biobank samples will be analysed, with the results subsequently validated in a prospective multinational observational cohort of around 1,200 participants.
DPU is responsible in particular for toxicogenomic investigations using yeast models. This work builds on the university’s existing research into neurodegenerative diseases. The corresponding research platform is under the scientific leadership of Univ.-Prof. Dr. Ralf Braun and uses Saccharomyces cerevisiae to investigate molecular and cellular mechanisms of protein misfolding and neurodegenerative diseases.
In addition, DPU is involved in the areas of Living Labs and stakeholder engagement. The aim is to translate scientific findings, together with relevant societal groups, into understandable and practically useful prevention and decision-making tools.
CLARITY-PD received an outstanding evaluation of 14 out of 15 possible points from the European Commission. The project received the maximum score of 5 out of 5 in both the Impact and Quality and Efficiency of the Implementation categories. The evaluators particularly recognised the interdisciplinary approach, the integration of Open Science and the composition of the international consortium.
With CLARITY-PD, DPU further strengthens its international research profile and its integration into European research and innovation networks.
