The increasing importance of systems biology and functional ‘omics in scientific studies, in pharmaceutics and in medicine, means that there is already a clearly identified need for scientists able to bridge the gap between traditional biomedicine, informatics and the theoretical sciences most especially mathematics, statistics and control engineering.
It is intended that the training programmes of all of the new recruits will include a mobility element so that they can gain a balanced view between their laboratory research experience and also in an industrial setting. Plus they will gain the added advantage of seeing the various parts of the process in different member states.

The involvement of 2 SMEs in the consortium makes sure that all the information obtained through the development of the project will be analyzed in depth and the druggable targets identified will be assessed and developed for their use as therapeutic agents. By focusing the know how of highly renowned research groups, and clinicians from different European countries to develop new, highly advanced approaches for obesity, the project will contribute to the competitiveness of the European biotech industry.

Information generated by this project will be made available to the wider scientific community, thus promoting further scientific advances and also reinforcing the application of functional omics to obesity, diabetes and other biomedical challenges. This development can make Europe gain reputation that the worldwide scientific community will possibly take it into account.

ADIBET offers unprecedented opportunities for addressing functional protein networks, identifying key regulatory steps in adipokine-mediated cross talk in the context of organism pathophysiology, for disease fingerprinting and identification/validation of new drug targets and most importantly for translating this knowledge and training the systems biologists for the future. The most important is the accessibility to a vast variety of human samples (adipocytes, muscular and islet cell culture, visceral and subucutaneous fat biopsies) and the availability of the most highly developed and optimal mouse models, combined with unparalleled access to advanced high throughput techniques for gene/protein identification and subsequent functional verification. Together we propose to create the first European obesity innovation platform.

By analysing the genes/proteins or protein combinations which are responsible for regulating key processes in the adipokine secretion and signalling (leading gene/protein) and comparing diseased tissue with normal tissue both from humans and animals models between old and young, men and women; it is possible to identify the variation from the norm which underpins the alterations in adipocyte function and adipokines signalling in the obese patients and offers the potential to develop therapeutic strategies for obesity.

Some of 30-80 % of the adult population is Europe is overweight and obesity affects afflicts more than 130 million individuals in Europe, and, since its prevalence is rising, is expected to afflict 20 % of the population by the year 2010 (WHO, Regional Office for Europe, www.euro.who.int). Childhood obesity is an acute health crisis; about 20% of children are overweight, and a third of these are obese. Obese people have an increased risk of developing many serious medical conditions such as: type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, hypertension and stroke, gallbladder disease, certain types of cancer and psychosocial problems. In Europe alone, every year over one million deaths are caused due to being overweight. The cost of obesity in adults accounts for up to 6% of the direct annual health care budget in EU countries. Additional, indirect costs – due to premature loss of life, productivity and related income- are at least twice the direct costs. The growing prevalence of the disease, coupled with the changes in eating and physical activity habits, contributes to obesity and related disorders constituting one of the major burdens on our health care system. ADIBET can contribute to the change of this future predictions.