Sensogenomics, when genes respond to musical stimulation

Music has an impact on mood.

But what about the genes?

There are key hymns, they make our hair stand on end, others fill us with melancholy and we even cry, and some songs take us back in time.

but a multidisciplinary team made up of the GenPoB and GenVip research groups of the Health Research Institute (IDIS), at the Clinical Hospital of Santiago de Compostela, has set out to

For this, the IDIS and the Royal Philharmonic of Galicia have created a collaborative space to carry out this pioneering project in the world.

in which, for the first time, a large-scale collection of saliva samples will be carried out, in order to have data that support the influence of music to investigate the genetic bases of musical stimulation and study its therapeutic potential in the fight against disease and in line with the new trends towards personalized medicine.

Those responsible for the project, on which they have

are Antonio Salas Ellacuriaga, principal investigator of Genetics in Biomedicine (GenPoB) and GenVip and professor at the USC School of Medicine;

Professor Federico Martinón Torres, principal investigator of the GenVip Group and coordinator and head of the CHUS Pediatrics service, Laura Navarro Ramón, coordinator of the Sensogenomics project, musicologist and doctor in Musical Education, Belén Mosquera Pérez and Carmen Rodríguez-Tenreiro, management coordinators and clinical trials and bioethics respectively.

In addition,

involving renowned institutions such as Imperial College London, Genomic Institute of Singapore, Ospedale Pediatico Bambino Gesú, PENTA Fondazione, Oxford University or Bristol University, among others.

Salas explains that "it

".

Although he admits that "music has been with us for years and is linked to key moments of our existence, but we know how it impacts our genes."

And he points out that "we do know how it modulates our moods, but we want to know how it impacts diseases", so it would be a prescriptive resource in case of finding its specific benefits.

The first step of the research focuses on music and gene expression in the general population and different contexts of human pathology such as

among others, in order to obtain large-scale data, analyze it with scientific rigor using cutting-edge techniques and eventually be able to provide tools that improve the quality of life of people with this type of disease.

In this sense, Navarra highlights that "this project is unique because it addresses a virgin aspect of neuroscience:

. It is true that we knew and had brain maps of the activation of areas when a person plays an instrument, but not how it affects the listener. This is one step further."

The project coordinator also points out that it is a challenge "

".

And she adds that "we are going to look at all kinds of musical compositions of various styles, because we can register parameters such as timbres, cadences...".

The theory on which they work is that music can carry out an expression of genes in the general population and different contexts of human pathology such as cancer, Alzheimer's, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), or brain damage.

For this reason, the concert of the Royal Philharmonic of Galicia will serve to collect data on a large scale, analyze them with scientific rigor using cutting-edge techniques and eventually be able to provide tools that improve the quality of life of people with this type of disease.

In this way, it is intended that

, as a new discipline of genomic science,

.

At the same time, the molecular bases that underlie the activation of genetic information are examined and how all this together can open a door to new research, therapeutic uses and improvement of the quality of life.

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

Know more

• Galicia