Introduction
An EU FP6 Specific Targeted Research Project
The EURAMY consortium started on November 1st 2006, as a joint research programme bringing together 15 leading European academic groups, covering the majority of European laboratories working on most aspects of systemic amyloidoses.
EURAMY is a 3-year project and is supported by funding under the Sixth Research Framework Programme of the European Union, with 3M euros.
The project is a translational approach in studies of systemic amyloidoses, encompassing basic molecular research, genetic studies, studies of amyloid in or from tissues using proteomic tools, animal models for systemic amyloidoses, amyloid in humans and development of new therapeutic principles, highly needed for this group of rare but deadly diseases. The studies involve a plethora of sophisticated and modern methods, including molecular methods such as circular dichroism, FT-IR, laser light scattering, transmission and atomic force electron microscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, electron paramagnetic resonance, SPR, surface plasmon resonance, IACP-MS, electro spray and matrix assisted laser desorption mass spectrometry, high performance liquid chromatography, cyclic voltametry and DSC. State-of-the-art methods are used in tissue centered research, based on the human proteome which in turn is a result of the recent exploration of the human genome.
The program is broken down into seven workpackages (WP), from basic molecular research to clinical trials.
WP 1 - Understanding misfolding, amyloid and toxicity
WP 2 - Dissection of the amyloid deposits
WP 3 - Genetic analyses
WP 4 - Animal models
WP 5 – Development and resolution
WP 6 - Development of diagnostic procedures and clinical parameters
WP 7 - Development of treatments