German and English scientists will lead a Europe-wide study into the role of genetics and the environment in the development asthma.
Previous investigations have fallen short of proving cause-effect due to the complexity of human genetics and varying lifestyles. But the EU-funded GABRIEL study has pooled the very best in the field from all over Europe and can draw on the latest genomic and environmental data and approaches.
Imperial College London and Munich University are leading an €11 million investigation into how genetics and the environment influence the development of asthma in Europe. The Sixth Framework Programme-funded project GABRIEL involves over 150 scientists from 14 European countries, using the latest research across a variety of disciplines, including genetics, epidemiology and immunology, to identify key factors in the development of asthma.
Asthma is the major chronic childhood illness in Europe costing over €3 billion a year. Although effective therapies of mild asthma exist, the 10% of children with severe cases account for 60% of this expense. Even when treatment is effective, it is not able to cure the disease, say the scientists.
Asthma is due to a combination of genetic and environmental effects. It runs strongly in families. It was rare a hundred years ago, but is increasingly common in developed societies across the world. Meanwhile, living in a rural environment is believed to protect against the disease.
"The hope is that we in GABRIEL will be able to identify both risk and protective factors, with the long-term aim of preventing the illness," noted Professor Bill Cookson of Imperial College London, coordinator of the study.
His co-leader Professor Erika von Mutius of Munich University explained that, traditionally, it has been hard to analyse all the genetic and environmental information. "But the latest developments in areas, such as genomics and bioinformatics, now allow us to make sense of huge and complicated datasets."