- What we do
- Project management
- Stakeholders
In six existing prospective birth cohort studies in Europe, HELIX will estimate prenatal and postnatal exposure to a broad range of chemical and physical exposures: persistent and non-persistent organic chemicals, metals, pesticides, environmental tobacco smoke, water contaminants, air pollutants, noise, UV radiation, and contact with green spaces.
Exposure models will be developed for the full cohorts totalling 32,000 mother-child pairs and biomarkers will be measured in a subset of 1,200.
Nested repeat-sampling panel studies (N=150) will collect data on biomarker variability and use smartphone-linked sensors to assess individual mobility, physical activity and personal exposure to air pollutants and UV radiation.
Omics techniques will determine molecular profiles (metabolome, proteome, transcriptome, epigenome) associated with exposures.
Statistical methods for multiple and combined exposures will provide exposure-response estimates for fetal and child growth, obesity, neurodevelopment, and respiratory outcomes.
Finally, a health impact assessment exercise will be conducted for combined early-life exposures.
Martine Vrijheid - martine.vrijheid[at]isglobal.org
Project CoordinatorDiana van Gent - diana.vangent[at]isglobal.org
Project Manager and contactCREAL - Centre de Recerca en Epidemiologia Ambiental
Parc Recerca Biomèdica de Barcelona
Doctor Aiguader, 88 - 08003, BarcelonaTel +34 932 14 7354
Fax +34 932 14 7301
CRG
Centre for Genomic Regulation (ES)
Prof Xavier Estivill
The CRG is an emerging world-class interdisciplinary research institute, located in the Biomedical Research Park of Barcelona (PRBB), one of the largest biomedical research clusters in southern Europe. The CRG is organized into 5 scientific programmes: Gene Regulation, Stem Cells and Cancer, System Biology, Bioinformatics and Genomics, Cell and Developmental Biology and Genes and Diseases. The core facilities of the institute are state-of-the-art and include that for the Light Microscope, DNA Ultra-sequencing, Mass Spectroscopy, DNA Microarray, High-throughput Screening, FACS, Bioinformatics, and the animal-house.
Contributing personnel - Genomics, Epigenomics and Transcriptomics
Xavier Estivill
Mark Friedländer
Raquel Rabionet
Marta Vives
The CRG/UPF Proteomics Unit is currently equipped with one new Q-Trap (5500 AB-Sciex) and two stateof- the-art LTQ-Obitrap (XL and Velos; Thermo) instruments, which will be used to identify and quantify selected protein targets or posttranslational modifications. The Unit has broad expertise in sample processing and protein detection and quantification, including techniques such as plasma depletion, glycoprotein-enrichment, strong cation exchange fractionation, and quantification using isobaric tag approaches as well as label-free among others. The Unit can routinely process dozens of samples per day and identify over one thousand proteins in complex mixtures.
Contributing personnel - Genomics, Epigenomics and Transcriptomics
Eduard Sabidó
Cristina Chiva
Eva Borràs
Francesco Mancuso