Maternal mental disorders are the most common complications during pregnancy and within the first year after childbirth (defined as the perinatal period) and are the leading cause of maternal suicide. Affected mothers cannot function properly, causing a devastating impact on the entire family. Effective primary prevention interventions are urgently needed. However, the current scientific evidence is insufficient to implementing primary preventive programs at the population level. I aim to establish the effectiveness of universal preventive interventions for maternal perinatal mental disorders and to support their implementation as normalized routine practice in global healthcare services. Integrating classical and emerging methodological frameworks (family systems, self-determination theory, and normalization process theory), as well as the perspective of patient and public involvement in research, I will: (a) Develop a personalized mobile-Health preventive intervention for mothers and their partners, which integrates evidence-based psychological components and personalized health recommendations; (b) Test preventive intervention effectiveness for reducing the incidence of maternal depression and anxiety disorder, reducing father/partner symptoms of depression and anxiety, and promoting child health and development; (c) Apply a causal methodology, to pinpoint the underlying mechanisms for the effectiveness of the preventive intervention; and (d) Understand the implementation process and identify the factors that can promote or inhibit implementation. With the multidisciplinary team that I lead – and a large-scale hybrid effectiveness-implementation trail in real-world maternal health services – this research programme promises to be the first in its field. The resulting robust scientific evidence and novel explanatory model will create a new research paradigm. A toolkit for implementation research will enhance translation as normalized routine practice.

Food allergy is an immune-based disease that has become an important public health problem that affects children and adults and may be increasing in prevalence.In the US, food allergy affects 5% of children under the age of 5 years and 4% of teens and adults, and its prevalence appears to be on the increase. Globally, it is estimated that over 6% of the population, around 200 to 250 million people, suffer from some food allergies, affecting more than 17 million people only in Europe. The main objective of this proposal is translating an optical diagnostic technology already proven in which the novel AllerScreening platform is based on, to the clinical routine, addressing a priority healthcare unmet need from the laboratory to the clinic. The unique features of AllerScreening will allow clinicians to early detect main food allergies (at least the 90% of European food allergies) through a simple test using a drop of sera, reducing the cost and technical requirements of the current clinical practice. This new and innovative cost-effective sensing system for the in vitro component diagnosis of food allergies will be feasible thanks to the multiplexed disposable BioKits and the optical Pont-of-Care (PoC) reader in which the novel AllerScreening platform is based on, allowing the adoption of a novel PoC diagnostic device specific for food allergies.

Tinnitus is the perception of a phantom sound and the patient’s reaction to it. Tinnitus remains a scientific and clinical enigma of iTinnitus is the perception of a phantom sound and the patient’s reaction to it. Although much progress has been made, tinnitus remains a scientific and clinical enigma of high prevalence and high economic burden. It affects more than 10% of the general population, whereas 1% of the population considers tinnitus their major health issue. Recent cohort studies show that tinnitus prevalence tends to increase over time and with older age. Assuming that there is no cure to be found, the prevalence estimates in Europe would double by 2050. A large variety of patient characteristics - including genotyping, aetiology, and phenotyping - are poorly understood, because integrated systems approaches are still missing to correlate patient`s characteristics to predict responses to combinatorial therapies. Although genetic causes of tinnitus have been neglected for decades, recent findings of genetic analysis in specific subgroups (gender and phenotype) have highlighted that bilateral tinnitus in men reached a heritability of 0.68. This heritability is close to autism, schizophrenia and Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). There is no current consensus on tinnitus treatment. UNITI’s overall aim is to deliver a predictive computational model based on existing and longitudinal data attempting to address the question which treatment approach is optimal for a specific patient based on specific parameters. Clinical, epidemiological, medical, genetic and audiological data, including signals reflecting ear-brain communication, will be analysed from existing databases. Predictive factors for different patient groups will be extracted and their prognostic relevance will be tested in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in which different groups of patients will undergo a combination of therapies targeting the auditory and central nervous systems.

Ageing is the major risk factor for idiopathic PARKINSON'S DISEASE (PD), the first motor neurodegenerative disorder (in EU 1% in 65+; about 4% in 80+). The most recent conceptualizations of ageing and PD indicate that they share basic mechanisms, e.g. accumulation of senescent cells and propagation phenomena such as inflammaging mirrored in PD by neuro-inflammaging in brain that foster a prion-like spreading of neuronal damage. Thus, to fully understand PD pathogenesis and set up innovative neuro-protective therapies it is mandatory to posit PD within the framework of ageing process. The main goal of PROPAG-AGEING is to identify specific cellular and molecular perturbations deviating from healthy ageing trajectories towards PD. To this aim the project will exploit four large, very informative EXISTING COHORTS where biomaterials are available: i) de novo PD patients (before any therapy) followed longitudinally, including the largest repository of PD patients, i.e. PPMI; ii) centenarians and their offspring (CO) who never showed clinical signs of motor disability; iii) old twins of the Swedish Twin Registry (STR) followed longitudinally for >45 years, assessed for lifestyle and exposure to toxicants, and where incident and prevalent cases of PD discordant twins have been collected, including brains. The most informative sample from these cohorts will be studied in a DISCOVERY PHASE by an integrated set of omics to identify molecular signatures whose results will enter in a VALIDATION PHASE exploiting the four large cohorts, and performing functional in in vitro studies using dopaminergic neurons obtained by PD somatic cells from PD patients and centenarians via iPSC protocol. An added value is that omic data in centenarians and CO are available, and will represent the gold standard of healthy ageing. This approach will allow to identify new molecular profiles for early diagnosis and therapy (identification of druggable targets) of PD and signatures of healthy ageing.

The project aims enhancing cross-sector, international and interdisciplinary collaboration in the area of social robotics technology for care. Are robots ready for society, and is society ready for robots? How can social robots can be included in people’s lives? Robots are increasingly being used in the healthcare sector as a potential solution to the current and future challenges faced by the healthcare sector. Due to the global population ageing, by 2035 the world is projected to lack 12.9 million healthcare professionals (WHO: 2013). Social robots may benefit the quality life and wellbeing of patients, their families and healthcare professionals. Evidence and much of the needed knowledge are still lacking. Strong interdisciplinarity and cross-sectorial research and innovation activity is needed. A knowledge hub for social robotics will be created with a threefold aim: (1) To enhance the competencies of involved staff members, refining and focusing their skills; (2) To build a tri-sectoral network involving academia, industry and users of technology, and (3) to create an enduring network that will outlive the grant funding. The core of the project includes some of the strongest actors in international research, SMEs and user organisations, focusing on three activity lines: technological, sociological, care-and-welfare. To be able to understand the impact of introducing social robots in care, the three areas that will be affected by this technical evolution will be researched: (1) care provided as medical practice; this is the care given to patients in hospitals, clinics, rehabilitation centres and other medical facilities. (2) residential care - this area refers to all care institutions accepting patient/clients as residents: elderly homes, nursing homes, special needs schools for children or adults, etc. (3) family care, investigating how social robots can be implemented in the home, and as a part of domestic life.