About Neuronet
The major aim of IG NeuroNet is to combine functional genomics and proteomics with bioinformatics in order to efficiently predict alterations in the molecular networks of neurodegenerative (ND) disease processes. Several lines of clinical, genetic and biochemical evidence indicate that similar molecular pathways, e.g. the ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS) or chaperone networks, are affected in different neurodegenerative disorders. This suggests that similar molecular programs are altered in illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), Huntington’s disease (HD), spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
However, the molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration are still largely unclear. To create an accurate picture of the pathways and functional modules perturbed in these disease processes, IG NeuroNet aims to systematically generate high quality protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks for ND diseases utilising a comprehensive set of complementary proteomics technologies. These networks will be perturbed with RNAi and/or small molecules using cell-based assays to explore functional and dynamic changes in protein complexes.
The networks will be integrated with phenotype and expression data with the ultimate aim of creating closely interrelated connectivity maps of neurodegenerative diseases. Bioinformatic analysis of these phenotype-interactome-drug connectivity maps should allow the prediction of pathways critical for neurodegeneration, of disease proteins and of potential drug targets and their susceptibility to drug effects.
The IG NeuroNet wants to apply a cutting-edge integrative approach which should lead to a systematic network-based understanding of 53 neurodegenerative disease phenotypes, revealing hitherto unknown relationships between 85 disease proteins and their interacting partners, drug molecules and signalling pathways.
This project is funded as part of the Medical Genome Research Programme NGFN-Plus by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with the reference numbers 01GS08169 to 01GS08173 and 01GS0844.
