LIH Participates in EU Project to Tackle Health Impacts of Traffic Noise and Pollution

• Multiomics Data Science
• Department of Cancer Research

Starting January 1, 2025, the Luxembourg Institute of Health will be a key partner in the MARKOPOLO project, an ambitious EU-funded initiative investigating the health impacts of environmental factors such as air and noise pollution, to the onset and management of non-communicable cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, mental, and metabolic diseases. With its cutting-edge expertise in multi-omics data analysis, the LIH will significantly contribute to uncovering how noise and particulate matter affect human health.

MARKOPOLO, short for “markers of pollution”, is coordinated by Prof. Andreas Daiber from the Molecular Cardiology Research group at the University Medical Center Mainz in Germany. The four-year project, funded by €8 million from the EU and €1.28 million from the Swiss National Fonds, aims to identify biomarkers and molecular mechanisms that illuminate the interaction of environmental factors with biological processes that contribute to diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and atherosclerosis. The project emphasizes investigating the exposome, and will examine how lifetime exposure to environmental and lifestyle factors impacts health at the molecular level.

At the LIH, we will use state-of-the-art multi-omics data analysis and data integration to clarify how noise and fine particle exposure affect the brain-heart axis. Through this research, we aim not only to understand how pollution affects human health, but also to refine predictive models that help identify high risk populations, ultimately guiding the development of more targeted and effective preventive strategies,

stated Dr Petr Nazarov, head of the Bioinformatics and AI Unit and the Multiomics Data Science Research Group at the LIH.

By joining this international collaboration, the LIH aspires to advance environmental risk assessments and preventive healthcare strategies throughout Europe.