The HES-SO Valais-Wallis Institute of Informatics will lead a European project
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The Institute of Informatic’s eHealth research cluster has been awarded scientific coordination of the European Hereditary project.
The project aims to revolutionise disease detection, plan treatment response and explore medical knowledge of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson and Alzheimer.
Hereditary innovates by integrating heterogeneous semantic data to analyse the interactions between the brain and the intestines.
For 4 years, 18 research partners in Europe and the United States will be working on this major project, which is being funded to the tune of CHF 14 Million.
The causes of neurodegenerative diseases are still difficult to define precisely. As a result, Hereditary will attempt to analyse these diseases using a broad approach based on heterogeneous data: genetic data (predispositions), medical imaging of the brain (MRI), eye scans (OCT – Optical Coherence Tomography) and analysis of the intestinal microbiome.
Our intestines communicate with our brain via billions of neurons. The flora made up of bacteria, viruses and phages (viruses that multiply in bacteria) can be influenced by the way we eat or our lifestyle. Studies have shown the influence of the intestine in the development of neurodegenerative diseases.
Source: HES-SO Valais-Wallis