IDEAL ageing

Exciting approaches to ageing research

The IDEAL consortium intends to obtain insight into the role of early life conditions affecting late-life health, disease and ageing. Early life exposures, lifespan regulation and longevity are being studied in several organisms, like mice, fly, frog and human. The scheme below illustrates how the workpackages cover each different aspects of the life phases. In the end, epigenetics, genetics, gene expression, phenotypic analyses will be integrated over all life phases. Reports of studies in human populations indicated that exposure to undernutrition and stress conditions in the uterus or early childhood may lead to persistent changes in DNA that may affect gene regulation (epigenetic changes) and lead to unfavourable health conditions in adulthood and at later ages. 

 We developed an metro-like infrastructure for integrating the results of the IDEAL consortium and to make advantage of data that is generated within the IDEAL consortium. An example regarding a relevant research question is in the picture.