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Symposium: FP7 Projects on the Blood Brain Barrier
Euripides, Justbrain and Neurobid are three projects funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme and focusing their research on the same topic: the Brain Blood Barrier (BBB). A symposium of all three EU FP7 projects was organized by Euripides coordinator, Prof Matthias Koepp of UCL. The symposium “FP7 Projects on the Blood Brain Barrier” was held on 7th February 2011 at Latimer Place, Chalfont, attended by 81 scientists from 31 centres and research teams across Europe. The cumulative total of FP7 grants awarded by the EC to these three consortia is €13 M.
The BBB is the major obstacle to the treatment of many mental and neurological diseases like epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia and many others, as it hampers the delivery of substances to the CNS which may be important for diagnosis and therapy. As neurological diseases contribute to about 6% of the global burden of disease (according to the WHO), there is a pressing need to better understand the BBB and to develop new and more effective strategies of diagnosis and treatment.
Euripides, led by Prof Matthias Koepp of UCL, focuses on resistance to drug treatment. The challenge in treating most diseases of the CNS is overcoming drug resistance due to poor delivery and/or retention of pharmaceuticals. The aim is to develop a molecular imaging tool to select drug resistant patients in whom BBB transporters may prevent drugs from reaching their pharmacological targets to exert a desirable effect.
The major goals of the Neurobid consortium, led by Prof Dammann at the University of Hannover are to understand the BBB in the developing brain in order to improve understanding of neurological disorders of infancy and those in adults with developmental antecedents and to develop novel drug delivery strategies to the brain for large molecules.
The consortium of Justbrain, led by Prof Britta Engelhardt at the University of Bern, has accumulated knowledge on the structure and function of the BBB cell-cell junctions, identified endothelial signals controlling the expression of individual junction proteins and started to develop approaches, which may tansiently open these junctions.
The Euripides coordinator, Prof Matthias Koepp said: “This symposium is an excellent example of how EU funding can result in joining forces, avoiding duplication and speeding up developments in large scale initiatives”.
This symposium gave BBB-experts from across Europe the opportunity to come together, share ideas, achievements and strengths of each consortium, and identify the potential for synergistic working. Utilising a wide range of skills and knowledge present within the three consortia, joint research proposals and projects with improved methodology and based on vigorous models will aim to better understand this important barrier system.
Links:
Euripides www.euripides-europe.com
Justbrain www.justbrain-fp7.eu
Neurobid www.neurobid.eu
