APO-SYS · Apoptosis systems biology applied to cancer and AIDS. An integrated approach of experimental biology, data mining, mathematical modelling, biostatistics, systems engineering and molecular medicine

A Europe-wide consortium of experimental biologists, biomathematicians, biostatisticians, computer scientists and clinical scientists will team up to approach cell death pathways in health and disease, placing particular emphasis on cancer and AIDS. The consortium will create a unique database integrating existing and accumulating knowledge on lethal signal transduction pathways leading to apoptosis or non-apoptotic (necrotic, autophagic, mitotic) cell death, perform data mining to integrate system-wide analyses on cell death (genome, epigenome, transcriptome, proteome, lipidome data), and use high-throughput methods (“omics”, CHiP-chip and genome-wide siRNA screens) for the experimental exploration of death pathways in human cell lines in vitro and in relevant disease models (in vitro in human cells and in vivo in mice and Drosophila). In addition, the consortium will establish mathematical models of lethal pathways to devise algorithms that predict apoptosis susceptibility and resistance, obtain data (genome, transcriptome, proteome, lipidome) on clinical samples (cancer cell lines, cancer tissues, serum, and blood samples) and perform biostatistical analyses on them in order to demonstrate the contribution of apoptotic process in human cancers and AIDS. Then, the consortium will integrate the knowledge into mathematical models for the optimal interpretation of clinical data, aiming at optimal diagnostic and prognostic performance as well as at the identification of possible therapeutic targets for the treatment of cancer and AIDS.