Consortium Receives $8M to Investigate Molecular Roots of Extreme Aggression

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The European Union has approved a project aimed at determining the causes of extreme aggressive behavior and is providing €6 million ($8 million) to the effort.

Called Aggressotype, the project seeks to find the molecular roots of extreme aggression in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and other "conduct disorders," as well as in the general population. The total cost of the project is about €8.1 million, according to the grant application. The EU funding was awarded as part of the Seventh Framework Programme.

In the application, the researchers said that they will use existing data sets and acquire new data to build a "knowledge chain from molecule to behavior, investigating known and novel genes, gene networks, and their epigenetic interactions, and mapping their mode of action from the molecular via the cellular to the brain-circuit level."

The work, they added, is expected to result in new algorithms that may be useful in predicting aggressive behavior. The algorithms will be validated in existing longitudinal studies in children. Their predictive value for adults will also be...