Project Details
Projekt
GRK 1427: Food Constituents as Triggers of Nuclear Receptor-mediated Intestinal Signalling
Subject Area
Medicine
Term
from 2006 to 2011
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 20230898
Public concern about food safety calls for the development of a reliable data base for the impact of food constituents on human health. The Research Training Group aims at linking a contribution to this demand with high impact basic research in biomedicine. Current knowledge about cell cycle, proliferation and cell death suggests that the mechanisms of action of well-known dietary toxicants but also of dietary antioxidants assumed to be beneficial to human health are much more complicated than expected in the past. The research focus shifts from damage and protection of single molecules to more sophisticated interference with the complex network of cellular regulation.
The research programme of the Research Training Group will, on the one hand, generate data on the mechanisms of action of food constituents, which are helpful to risk benefit analysis for food, but will, on the other hand, make use of these food constituents as tools in the exploration of processes essential for cellular regulation. On the target side, the research programme will concentrate on nuclear receptors while on the compound side, ligands of these receptors will predominantly be studied. The projects focus on the first pass organ intestine and its susceptibility towards food constituents. Innovative methodology such as knockdown cells, knockout mice and immunological animal models will be used.
Graduates with an outstanding degree in natural sciences or medicine are admitted to the Research Training Group. The training programme provides a systematic scientific base for the highly specialised thesis topics, on the one hand, and a broader spectrum of theoretical knowledge in the central fields of toxicology, on the other hand. It is expected that the students, when leaving the Research Training Group, will not only be fit for excellent research in academia in the field of food safety, but also in other areas of biomedical research and that they can alternatively also serve as highly qualified junior staff in toxicologically oriented workplaces in industry and administration.
The research programme of the Research Training Group will, on the one hand, generate data on the mechanisms of action of food constituents, which are helpful to risk benefit analysis for food, but will, on the other hand, make use of these food constituents as tools in the exploration of processes essential for cellular regulation. On the target side, the research programme will concentrate on nuclear receptors while on the compound side, ligands of these receptors will predominantly be studied. The projects focus on the first pass organ intestine and its susceptibility towards food constituents. Innovative methodology such as knockdown cells, knockout mice and immunological animal models will be used.
Graduates with an outstanding degree in natural sciences or medicine are admitted to the Research Training Group. The training programme provides a systematic scientific base for the highly specialised thesis topics, on the one hand, and a broader spectrum of theoretical knowledge in the central fields of toxicology, on the other hand. It is expected that the students, when leaving the Research Training Group, will not only be fit for excellent research in academia in the field of food safety, but also in other areas of biomedical research and that they can alternatively also serve as highly qualified junior staff in toxicologically oriented workplaces in industry and administration.
DFG Programme
Research Training Groups
Applicant Institution
Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
Participating Institution
Technische Universität Dortmund
Participating Researchers
Professor Dr. Josef Abel; Professorin Dr. Gisela H. Degen; Professor Dr. Patrick Diel; Professorin Dr. Ellen Fritsche; Professorin Dr. Irmgard Förster; Professor Dr. Jan G. Hengstler; Professorin Dr. Regine Kahl (†); Privatdozent Dr. Peter H. Roos; Dr. Roel Schins; Privatdozent Dr. Klaus Unfried; Professor Dr. Frank Wunderlich; Professor Dr. Wim Wätjen
Spokespersons
Professorin Dr. Charlotte Esser, from 4/2009 until 3/2010; Professor Dr. Peter Proksch, since 4/2010
