University of Coimbra presents 9.5 million-project to tackle obesity and promote a healthy lifestyle

English version: Diana Taborda

The public launch of the Project "PAS GRAS: De-risking metabolic, environmental and behavioral determinants of obesity in children, adolescents and young adults" will be held on Thursday, the 29th of June, 9:30 am, at Colégio da Trindade. The project, with a European Commission funding of 9.5 million euros through the Horizon Europe Programme, is led by the University of Coimbra (UC), and has the participation of 16 partners from several European countries.

The opening session will include addresses by the Rector of the UC, Amílcar Falcão, and Luís Pereira de Almeida, coordinator of the Centre for Innovative Biomedicine and Biotechnology of the University of Coimbra (an Associate Laboratory that integrates the Centre for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, CNC-UC, the Coimbra Institute for Clinical and Biomedical Research, iCBR-UC, and the Centre for Health Studies and Research, CEISUC). The presentation of "PAS GRAS" will follow at 10:15 by the project leader, Paulo Oliveira, researcher and vice president of CNC-UC.

The event will feature talks by three prominent scientists who are part of the project's External Advisory Board, Philipp Scherer, Casper Schalkwijk and John P. A. Ioannidis.

Philipp Scherer, professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (United States of America), world-renowned for the study of adipose tissue and the role of fat in health and disease, will conduct the talk "The adipocyte and its afterlife: implications for health and disease in the pediatric and adult population" at 11.45 am.

At 3.30 pm Casper Schalkwijk, professor at Maastricht University (The Netherlands) and one of the world's leading scientists in the field of vascular and metabolic complications associated with obesity and diabetes, will talk about "Advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs): friend or foe for human health?"

John P. A. Ioannidis, one of the most cited scientists in the world, professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Population Health at Stanford University (USA), and principal investigator of the European Research Area Chair (ERA Chair) "EXCELScIOR" of the UC, will deliver the lecture "Producing and evaluating open, reliable and reproducible science" at 5 p.m.

The 16 partners involved in this research and innovation project, which will run for the next 5 years, will also be presented throughout the day.

PAS GRAS" was 1 of the 6 projects approved by the Horizon Europe programme, under the pillar 2 of the health cluster, Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness. Paulo Oliveira states that "The project emerged from a common interest between researchers from CNC-UC and iCBR in studying biological, metabolic and environmental determinants of obesity. PAS GRAS aims to identify the individual risk of obesity and its complications, strengthen bio-based innovation and develop new approaches to promote healthy lifestyles which include adopting the Mediterranean diet and its specific ingredients, increasing physical activity, and promoting scientific and health literacy", further adding that “Since the project approval, we have kept bringing together colleagues from several cutting-edge research areas of the UC, as well as the knowledge excellence and expertise of the various partners involved.”

As for the launch session on Thursday, the researcher comments that “it will be a unique moment of connection between scientists, healthcare, education and sports professionals, entrepreneurs and decision-makers. We will have a white paper for signatories, aiming to mobilise individuals and collectives, groups and organisations, joining the "PAS GRAS" mission".”

Paulo Oliveira adds that “Obesity is a public health problem. The "PAS GRAS" project is deeply committed to carrying out activities to promote and maintain behavioural changes regarding food consumption and production patterns, as well as involving very relevant sectors such as the food industry, retailers, primary producers, catering services, as well as health centres, science centres, sports clubs, among many others. In the end, we hope to contribute with scientific evidence on the biology of obesity, as well as gathering the results of the international awareness campaign in order to produce recommendations that are increasingly closer to the needs of all and everyone”

The PAS GRAS Kick off meeting is free and open to the general public.

Find more about the project here.

Biographical notes (external consultants and coordination team)

Philipp Scherer

Cientista reconhecido mundialmente pelo estudo do tecido adiposo e do papel da gordura na saúde e na doença. Foi um dos responsáveis pela descoberta da hormona adiponectina, libertada apenas pelo tecido adiposo, com função de regulação da energia gasta e armazenada pelo corpo, do sistema imunitário, atividade anti-inflamatória, entre outras. No presente, a sua investigação procura identificar e caracterizar proteínas que possam ser um elo de comunicação entre as células de gordura, fígado e pâncreas, bem como processos associados ao equilíbrio energético do corpo e a obesidade. Publicou mais de 500 artigos, foi citado mais de 73 000 vezes e tem um factor h=133.

Casper Schalkwijk

Professor of Experimental Internal Medicine at the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences of Maastricht University, The Netherlands. He is a leading scientist in the area of vascular and metabolic complications associated with obesity and diabetes and is a world reference in the field of glycation. He is one of the coordinators of the Maastricht Study, one of the largest global studies in the area of metabolic diseases. He has published around 470 papers, has been cited more than 21,300 times and has an h-factor of 78.

John P. A. Ioannidis

One of the world's most cited scientists. Expert in meta-science, he aims to improve research methods and practices and to enhance approaches to integrating information and generating reliable evidence-based science, epidemiology and clinical research. John P. A. Ioannidis has been a critic of research practices and lack of scientific rigour in several fields such as medicine, epidemiology and social sciences. He is an advocate for the use of more rigorous and transparent approaches in scientific research, such as pre-registration of studies and making data available to enable replication of results. John Ioannidis is also an ERA Chair Holder at the University of Coimbra, in the framework of the "EXCELScIOR" project.

Paulo Oliveira

Leader of the "PAS GRAS" project and vice-president of CNC-UC. Internationally renowned leading researcher in the study of mitochondrial function in various diseases, such as hepatic steatosis, diabetes and obesity. He has coordinated two international cooperation projects in the scope of Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), focused on the study of non-alcoholic fatty liver. He coordinates the ERA Chair "EXCELScIOR", which will establish a new research group dedicated to meta-science at the University of Coimbra.

Anabela Marisa Azul

Co-coordinator of the "PAS GRAS" project and lead researcher of the CNC-UC group of Interdisciplinary Studies on Metabolism. She is an ecologist by training, with an interest in studies that link metabolism and one health, functional attributes of fungi, biodiversity as an environmental determinant of health, science literacy, health and ecological sustainability. She has complementary training in science communication and narrative medicine and recognised experience in participatory research approaches and visual methodologies as research practice, such as comics. She coordinates the UC project "Mushrooms from 'Farm to Fork''", funded by the Recovery and Resilience Plan.

Eugénia Carvalho

Co-coordinator of the "PAS GRAS" project and lead researcher of the CNC-UC Obesity, Diabetes and Complications research team. She has been studying the role of adipose tissue and how it relates with metabolic disturbances as well as insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease and diabetes in children and adults. She carries out projects aimed at understanding the mechanisms of early development of pre-diabetes, with a focus on the immune system, which is responsible for the inflammatory process of obesity.

John Jones

Co-ordinator of "PAS GRAS" and lead researcher of the CNC-UC Intermediate Metabolism team. He studies changes in metabolic fluxes in obesity and diabetes. He developed NMR methods to evaluate metabolic fluxes of glucose, fructose and lipids for a better insight into the role of different nutrients in metabolic disorders. Member of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL).

Paulo Matafome

Co-coordinator of "PAS GRAS" and principal investigator at iCBR. He studies adipose tissue dysfunction in obesity. He has been very active in studying the neuroendocrine mechanism controlling the gut-adipose tissue crosstalk as a promising therapeutic strategy to prevent obesity, adipose tissue dysfunction and its consequences.