Award

Fighting childhood obesity to stay healthy all over the life

Description: Obesity rates in late teens have increased in Europe from 6% in 1980 to 32%, with long-lasting effects on the prevalence of severe obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, premature death and disability. Efficiently fighting adult obesity is difficult but prevention and treatment of obesity have proven to work better at young ages. OBELISK goal is to cut the roots of the pandemic of obesity in Europe targeting children first. OBELISK is focused on elucidating, Predicting, Preventing obesity and bringing Precision medicine for children with obesity. OBELISK medicine is also Participative (4P), leveraging the potential of social innovation through engagement with families, scientific and medical communities, daycare, schools, municipalities, industries to achieve success. OBELISK objectives are: 1/ to bring breakthroughs in the molecular mechanisms by which causative factors interact to drive (or prevent) the transition from normal weight to obesity during childhood and to develop and exploit for prevention and treatment early predictive proprietary tools; 2/ to identify at least 3 novel childhood obesity genes with the prospect of identifying additional drug targets; 3/ to demonstrate the utility of targeted approaches to prevent childhood obesity; 4/ to bring breakthroughs in childhood obesity treatment including a real-life clinical study of a promising existing drug (GLP1R agonist) to reverse obesity in people with mutations predisposing to early severe obesity; 5/ to exploit the project results and disseminate best practices to prevent and treat childhood obesity, implementing education programs and translating OBELISK clinical results into guidelines and proposals for policy makers to change obesity care; 6/ to facilitate networking and exchanges with other actions and projects in order to optimize knowledge and joint activities. OBELISK targeted approach should contribute to decrease by 35% the number of children with obesity becoming adults with obesity.
Amount: €10,050,000
Funding type: research
Funder scheme: HORIZON - HORIZON-RIA
Start date: 2023-05-01
End date: 2028-04-30
Institution: INSTITUT NATIONAL DE LA SANTE ET DE LA RECHERCHE MEDICALE
Funded outputs count: 35
Funder award ID: 101080465
OpenAlex ID: G4252530706
2026 · Brian Medel-Lacruz, Adrián García-Recio, et al. · Nature Structural & Molecular Biology
2026 · Marta Lopez-Balastegui, Shuangyu Lian, et al. · Diabetologia
2026 · Søren Holm, Manuel Tena-Sempere, et al. · The Lancet Regional Health - Europe · 1
2026 · Jasmin Gaugel, Neele Haacke, et al. · Molecular Metabolism
2026 · Giovanni Luppino, Mara Giordano, et al. · Current Issues in Molecular Biology · 2
2025 · Manuel Tena-Sempere, Dimitrios-Dionyssios Koutsouris, et al. · Nature Reviews Endocrinology
2025 · Patricia Pigeon-Kherchiche, Karine Clément, et al. · Obesity and Endocrinology
2025 · Adrian Morales-Pastor, Tamara Miljuš, et al. · Nature Communications · 12
2025 · Omar Baritello, Simon H. Sündermann, et al. · Journal of Cachexia Sarcopenia and Muscle · 3
2025 · Debora Porri, Malgorzata Wasniewska, et al. · Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology · 3
2025 · David Aranda-García, Tomasz Maciej Stepniewski, et al. · Nature Communications · 72
2025 · Debora Porri, Malgorzata Wasniewska, et al. · Nutrients · 16
2024 · Jasmin Gaugel, Markus Jähnert, et al. · The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry · 4
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