Building Excellence in Systems Immunology and Healthy Aging Research

The demographic landscape of Europe is changing rapidly with an increasing number of old individuals. The increase in elderly people poses significant challenges for Europe in multiple spheres, notably in healthcare and its associated costs, as well as in overall wellbeing and cohesion of the European population. Healthy aging is therefore a crucial research and policy theme, and a healthy immune system is essential for this.Building upon the expertise in the molecular and cellular aspects of immune system function, excellent infrastructure and access to unique datasets of the Estonian Biobank, the University of Tartu (UTARTU) aims to become a world leader in research on age-related decline in immune function to address the societal challenge of age-related diseases and immunosenescence. To achieve this, UTARTU will partner with two excellent institutions in the fields of systems immunology and aging – Institut Pasteur (France) and the University of Copenhagen (Denmark). We will implement a wide range of activities to transfer to UTARTU knowledge and skills in 1. methodologies for studying molecular mechanisms in aging; 2. cutting-edge techniques for immunomonitoring; 3. big data and machine learning techniques for immunoprofiling; and 4. conducting healthy cohort and longitudinal studies. UTARTU will also receive guidance on interdisciplinarity aspects of healthy aging research, as well as on research management and commercialization. Partners will implement a pilot research project and prepare a joint research strategy to ensure long-term and mutually beneficial collaboration.