About MeDALL
MeDALL is an international four-year research project supported by the EU, which started in December 2010. The MeDALL consortium encompasses 23 public and private institutions, including 3 European SMEs whose specific complementary scientific expertise will contribute to MeDALL objectives. The project is coordinated by the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Paris, France and the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Barcelona, Spain. MeDALL has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) under grant agreement n° 261357.
MeDALL core achievements in the first year – Successful Expert meeting for the re-definition of classical phenotypes of allergic diseases in collaboration with WHO with agreement on working definitions – Establishment of a common database for classical and novel phenotyping using historical data for children in birth cohorts for comparison – Testing of inhalant and food allergens including novel food allergens and bacterial superantigens and distribution of the list among MeDALL researchers – Performance of an extensive literature study to select the most promising candidate genes involved in allergic diseases like atopic dermatitis, allergic rhinitis and asthma – Construction of a house dust mite model of asthma confirming the mechanisms of allergies in-vivo Jean Bousquet (Inserm and Montpellier University, France) is the MeDALL coordinator and states that “in the first year, the MeDALL team has done excellent work to form a strong collaborating community combining a wide range of expertise. I am sure that the knowledge generated by MEDALL will eventually help physicians to propose early diagnosis, prevention and targets for therapy. Allergy is a major health problem that is undervalued by doctors, patients, politics and the media. This has to change.” Scientific coordinator Josep M Antó (CREAL, Barcelona, Spain) summarizes: “MeDALL has achieved significant results in 2011 and in particular advanced the understanding of the IgE-associated allergic diseases and their phenotypes. We’re looking forward to 2012.”
EU-project MeDALL: Call for proposals for potential biomarkers
MeDALL invites proposals for potential biomarkers from within its research network. The biomarkers are to be measured in serum and/or plasma samples in MeDALL stage 2 analyses. MeDALL stands for “Mechanisms of the Development of ALLergy”; the project aims at improving the health of European citizens by understanding the causes of the allergy epidemic.
If MeDALL researchers have specific serum/plasma biomarkers that they would like to propose for stage 2 measurements, they are requested to submit their proposals to Iris Lavi (ilavi(at)creal.cat) by September 1st. Proposals should include the following information:
- complete name of the protein/biomarker, aliases and, if applicable, encoding gene
- scientific rationale including preliminary data and/or existing literature in support of the proposed biomarker being important in asthma and/or allergic disease
- any useful information which can be provided in relation to available assays for biomarker measurement (e.g. commercially available ELISA kits, multiplexing kits).
Proposals will be reviewed by the CREAL team for biomarker analyses and, in finalizing the list of biomarkers, priority will be given to scientific interest, value for integration with other MeDALL Work Packages and feasibility.
For more information, visit the MeDALL website: www.medall-fp7.eu.
MeDALL annual event 2013 Berlin
The next MeDALL meeting will be held in Berlin, Germany on January 14-15, 2013. During these two days, the activities and achievements of MeDALL during 2012 will be reported and disseminated. Presentations, discussions, round tables, and parallel training sessions will be available.
Paris, 23 January 2012
After one year of research on the causes explaining the epidemic of allergic diseases, the international MeDALL research team have reached important milestones that help to generate novel knowledge on the mechanisms of initiation of allergy. The researchers are reporting on their work package outcomes and the next steps at the 2nd Annual MeDALL meeting, which is being held on January 23rd to 24th 2012 in Paris, France.
In particular the following topics will be addressed:
- MeDALL findings on classical phenotypes, and discussion on the unsupervised allergic phenotypes
- IgEs molecular profiling
- Epigenetic markers of asthma and rhinitis in early life
- Integration of epidemiological clinical and experimental data and hypothesis in MeDALL
- Ethics of the informed consent in the early life research
- Future research priorities in birth cohorts of asthma and allergy
- Junior sessions: Postdoctoral researchers and PhD students are invited to attend and present their recent MeDALL results to the audience. A poster session will be organized as well.
A draft version of the latest Agenda is available online at the MeDALL website.
Find out more about the latest news, MeDALL events and MeDALL publications by visiting the MeDALL website.
MeDALL stands for Mechanisms of the Development of ALLergy.
