Description of the two awarded projects can be found further down.
Cooperation with India began in 2004 and has now resulted in seven Danish-Indian projects. The Danish Council for Strategic Research has, through its bilateral cooperation with India, decided to support two research projects in health science biotechnology this year with a total of DKK 9.5 million. The projects were selected in collaboration with the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology in India.
Cooperation between Denmark and India aims to increase research between the two countries in biotechnology. Biotechnology is an area where both Denmark and India are strong and have strong potential, which is exploited in the two new projects. The projects focus on the fight against cancer by identifying tumor inhibitors and research into the link between pregnancy diabetes and type 2 diabetes.
Denmark and India have a common interest in addressing challenges in biotechnology and health, and both countries have much to learn from each other, in how to treat patients and conduct research in practice. This is the fifth bilateral call between Denmark and India.
DISC-B – Denmark-India in vivo Screen for Cancer Biomarkers
Danish title: DISC-B – Danmark-Indien Screening for kræft-biomarkører i patienter
Grant holder: Stephen Michael Cohen, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Copenhagen
E-mail: scohen@sund.ku.dk
Grant: 5 m DDK
Total budget: 12.3 m DKK
Funding period: 2014-2019
Research training: 3 ph.d. and 1 postdoc
Partners: India: Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) (Pune), St Johns Research Institute (Bangalore). Denmark: University of Copenhagen.
The genome of a tumor will contain numerous genetic changes. Some of these mutations arise early and may be the initial cause of the cancer. Other mutations will arise as the cancer grows and adapts to its environment, including changes that arise in response to therapy. The constellation of genetic changes in a specific tumor may consequently influence the health and life expectancy of the patient, and will also influence the patient’s response to therapy. Some mutations act as drivers that advance the progress of the disease. Other mutants remove brakes that normally limit cancer cells ability to grow and spread. Typically a cancer will have some mutations of both types that can act together. This project aims at systematically investigating a living organism to find new brake mutants that act together with specific driver mutants to produce cancer in the fruit fly. Use of fruit flies may at first seem strange, but the same mutations that cause human cancer also cause cancer in the fly. The researchers have used this “fly cancer model” on a small scale to find new brake mutants. The project will gather researchers in Denmark and India to work together in identifying new cancer brake mutants on a much larger scale. The aim is to test each gene in the fly, to estimate their role in this model of human disease, and to use this information to develop new biomarkers.
VICYDIP – The role of epigenetics in the vicious cycle of diabetes and pregnancy
Danish title: VICYDIP – Epigenitikkens rolle i den onde cyklus af diabetes og graviditet
Grant holder: Allan Vaag, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen
E-mail: allan.vaag@regionh.dk
Grant: 4.6 m DKK
Total budget: 7.6 m DKK
Funding period: 2014-2016
Research training: 3 ph.d. and 1 postdoc
Partners: India: KEM Hospital Research Centre (Pune), Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (Hyderabad). Denmark: University of Copenhagen, Rigshospitalet, Statens Seruminstitut.
Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) affects around 3% of Danish and more than 10 % of Indian pregnancies. Women with GDM have a significantly increased risk of later developing type 2 diabetes (T2D), and we have shown that children of women with GDM exhibit significant increased risk of emerging development of T2D already at the age of 20. GDM can be seen as an early manifestation of T2D conditional upon, inter alia, reduced effect of insulin in muscle and adipose tissue. T2D is associated with significant costs for patients and society, including reduced life expectancy. Therefore, there are significant gains from preventing GDM, including reducing the risk of later development of T2D in children of mothers with GDM. India has one of the highest rates of diabetes in the world, and Denmark has a leading position in diabetes research. We want to develop our understanding about the mechanisms that lead to development of precursors of T2D in children caused by GDM in India and Denmark. Epigenetics focuses on modifications of DNA and RNA caused by environmental effects. We will study epigenetic mechanisms in umbilical cord blood, blood samples from children, placental tissue samples, tissue samples and stem cells from muscle and fat from 30 year old men and women. We will do this by population surveys in Northern and Central India as well as in Denmark. In addition to obtaining mechanistic knowledge of the relationship between GDM and development of precursors of T2D, we hope to find epigenetic biomarkers that can predict this development.