Professor Katja Kanninen’s research group at the A. I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences is one of the partners in the new EU-funded MARKOPOLO project. The goal is to explore the health impacts of traffic noise and air pollution with a special focus on fine and ultrafine particulate matter, using cutting-edge translational research approaches.
The four-year MARKOPOLO project investigates the effects of these exposures on the cardiovascular system, the brain, the lungs and metabolic processes. Comprising 15 partners from ten countries, the consortium has received €7.99 million in EU funding, and €1.28 million in external support from the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Kanninen’s Cellular Neurobiology research group contributes to the project by assessing how particulate matter and noise affect the brain, using cell culture and animal studies. “We are excited at the opportunity to continue our work on air pollution and the brain by taking the next important step forward in assessing the impacts of co-exposures on brain health,” Kanninen says.
Traffic noise and air pollution, especially particulate matter (PM), are environmental risk factors that contribute significantly to the development of diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and atherosclerosis. In Europe, traffic noise is responsible for the loss of 1.6 million healthy life years and air pollution causes around 0.5 million premature deaths each year. However, these health risks are often not adequately addressed in clinical guidelines. In addition, European limits for noise and particulate matter exceed the standards recommended by the WHO.
MARKOPOLO aims to investigate the impact of these risk factors on human health through an innovative translational approach involving experimental and computational models as well as clinical, interventional and epidemiological studies. One of the main objectives is to identify disease-relevant biomarkers and to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in diseases of the brain, lung and cardiovascular system. The “from bench-to-bedside” approach uses extensive knowledge of the brain-heart connection and applies modern methods to better understand the causes of disease.
The MARKOPOLO consortium is led by Professor Andreas Daiber from the Mainz University Medical Center in Germany.
The project will apply the so-called 'exposome concept', referring to how everything we are exposed to during our lives – especially environmental factors, nutrition or stress – can influence our health. “With this approach, we want to find out more precisely which of these influences make us ill. We focus on how these factors are connected and how they work in the body to better understand and prevent diseases. This is what makes MARKOPOLO so special,” Daiber explains.
The project is expected to provide new insights into the effects of environmental factors on the human body, improving risk assessment and evaluating the effectiveness of preventive strategies. The findings are expected to support the development of clear and actionable guidelines for a range of stakeholders.
The MARKOPOLO project partners include the University Medical Center Mainz, concentris research management gmbH, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg in Germany, University of Padova in Italy, the Medical University of South Carolina in the USA, Vytautas Magnus University in Lithuania, the University of Belgrade in Serbia, the Cyprus Institute, Luxembourg Institute of Health and Laboratoire National de Santé in Luxembourg, the University of Eastern Finland, the University of Southern Denmark and Danish Cancer Research Society, as well as the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute.
For furrher information, please contact:
Professor Katja Kanninen https://uefconnect.uef.fi/en/katja.kanninen/
Cellular Neurobiology research group https://uefconnect.uef.fi/en/cellular-neurobiology/
Coming soon: www.markersofpollution-markopolo.eu
