NattoPharma’s International Research Network has received the ITN research grant from European Commission’s research program Horizon 2020.
Coordinated by Queen Mary University of London, other partners of the network include the University of Maastricht, University College Dublin (part of the national University of Ireland), Ludvig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen, and Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, as well as the Medical Research Council Technology (UK).
The EVOLuTION or European Vascular Interventions and Therapeutic Innovation Network grant will be utilized to provide training for 11 early stage researchers (ESRs) in the management of chronic diseases in the field of cardiovascular disease.
Since 2004, NattoPharma has worked closely with the Maastricht University in documenting benefits of menaquinone-7, the company’s vitamin K2 branded as MenaQ7.
This grant will provide training in innovative therapeutic strategies that include MenaQ7, integrating early detection and prevention, to yield novel approaches to the management of chronic vascular and metabolic diseases that affect the increasing aging population of Western societies.
“The successful grant assignment and the opportunity to allocate highly qualified researchers to further work on vitamin K research is a great recognition of the vitamin K2 platform by this collaboration so far,” says associate professor Leon Schurgers at CARIM, Maastricht University, and the main contact among NattoPharma, the University, and Horizon 2020.
“I have great expectations for potential new and exciting observations that will arise from our mutual efforts – identifying even more positive health benefits of menaquinone-7.”
This grant is awarded in addition to €2.9 million (US$3.09 million) that the EVOluTION consortium received in 2015.
That application received the highest possible score and is funding two full-time researchers for three years, focusing on characterization and documentation of new biological aspects and effects of menaquinone-7 (as MenaQ7).
