Fighting childhood obesity to stay healthy all over the life

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.