The MoReHealth project is launched to improve personalised medicine:
More and more health data is available. However, analysing this data in order to extract and interpret meaningful information from it is not yet fully developed. This is also the case with so-called multi-omics data, which includes, for example, all of a person’s genes and proteins. This data can help to diagnose diseases, develop customised therapies and monitor treatment success. They need to be standardised and generated, processed and managed in a quality-controlled manner so that they can be used more efficiently and sustainably.
This is where the MoReHealth project comes in, which is being funded by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and the Volkswagen Foundation with three million euros as part of the zukunft.niedersachsen programme. Prof. Dr. Thomas Thomas Illig and Dr. Sara Haag at the MHH are coordinating this joint project between the Hannover Medical School (MHH), University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG), Braunschweig University of Technology (TU BS) and the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Lower Saxony. It will start on 1 September 2025 for a period of four years.
MoReHealth was initiated by TRAIN and RESIST. Researchers want to investigate the age-related susceptibility to infection of older people – essentially building on the existing collection of health data in the RESIST Cluster of Excellence, which is gradually being stored in the SHaReD database. To this end, further data is to be collected, including from patients who have fallen ill, and the database is to be further developed into a multi-omics database for the whole of Lower Saxony. TRAIN (Translational Alliance in Lower Saxony) is a network for translational health research, consisting of university and non-university research institutions in Hanover-Braunschweig-Göttingen.
“The methodological approach that we are developing in MoReHealth will make a significant contribution to the successful implementation of future large multi-omics studies at various locations in Lower Saxony,” says Prof Illig. The project team is using a practical example to better standardise multi-omics approaches: The aim of this is to identify biomarkers that predict the risk and severity of a herpes virus infection in older people. The aim is to develop new approaches in prevention, diagnostics and therapy. The investigations are essentially based on data obtained as part of the RESIST Senior Individuals Cohort – a study involving 650 citizens from the Hannover region – and with the help of a cohort of people in whom an infection with herpes viruses has led to shingles (Varicella Zoster Cohort). The aim is to transfer the methodological approach of the practical example to other diseases at a later date.
The photo shows Prof. Illig and Dr. Haag (from left) in the biobank rooms at the Clinical Research Centre (CRC) in Hanover. They are standing in front of a tank in which biosamples are stored.