Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2D) is a metabolic disorder characterized by high blood glucose in the context of insulin resistance and relative insulin deficiency. T2D entails severe consequences in the long term: macro-vascular complications (including atherosclerosis, cardiovascular diseases, and amputations) and micro-vascular complications (including retinopathy, nephropathy and neuropathy).

Europe’s growing obesity “epidemic”, its ageing population and often-sedentary lifestyle have led to an explosion in the incidence of type 2 diabetes. Based on the report assumption that ~50% of affected people are unaware of their disease, it can be estimated that about 60 million people are at present affected by T2D in the EU.

MISSION-T2D aims at developing and validating an integrated, multilevel patient-specific model for the simulation and prediction of metabolic and inflammatory processes in the onset and progress of the type 2 diabetes.

This mission will be accomplished by setting up a multi-scale model to study the systemic interactions of the involved biological mechanisms (immunological/inflammatory processes, energy intake/expenditure ratio and cell cycle rate) in response to a variety of nutritional and metabolic stimuli/stressors.

MISSION-T2D aims at paving the way for translating validated multilevel immune-metabolic models into the clinical setting of T2D. Indeed, this approach will eventually generate predictive biomarkers from the integration of metabolic, nutritional, immune/inflammatory, genetic and gut microbiota profiles, as well as of clinical data, suitable to be translated into cost-effective mobile-based diagnostic tools.

Participants:

• Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (IT, coordinator)
• Università di Bologna (IT)
• University of Cambridge (UK)
• Università degli Studi di Roma "Foro Italico” (IT)
• Toegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NL)
• Medisana Space Technologies GMbH (DE)
• University of Sheffield (UK)