The first of its kind in Europe, the €12 million BaSysBio (Bacillus Systems Biology) project, initiated in December, is headquartered in France, but involves 15 top European research organisations, as well as an Australian university.
Since the human genome was mapped 'systems biology' centres have sprung up all over Europe, including Bioquant in Heidelberg, Germany.
A new testing approach has effectively identified patients at the highest risk of cancer relapse after bladder cancer surgery, according to a study published in the February issue of The Lancet Oncology http://oncology.thelancet.com. Vol 8 Feb 2007 91.
Canada, Italy, Norway, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today committed US$1.5 billion to launch a pilot Advance Market Commitment (AMC) to help speed the development and availability of a new vaccine which is expected to save the lives of 5.4 million children by 2030. The new initiative will target pneumococcal disease, a major cause of pneumonia and meningitis…
Fortunately, the influenza virus has not swapped over to Germany yet because the country has enough to do with the norovirus which is expected to attack up to one million people during the next weeks. People affected by the virus suffer from strong nausea and diarrhoea that last at least two days.
Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Scotland, Spain and Switzerland are the first European countries affected by an increase of the influenza virus. Other countries will follow over the coming weeks and should prepare.
UK - Cervical cancer could be aggravated by a hormone-like molecule - prostaglandin - found in semen, according to a team of scientists led by Dr Henry Jabbour at the Medical Research Council's Human Reproductive Sciences Unit.
Targeted medication and gentle surgical procedures are the pillars of modern breast cancer therapy, according to participants at this years German Congress of Senology.
Beckman Coulter developed a new integrated lab systems: The UniCel DxC880i prototype should deliver efficient disease management services.
UK - A complex chain of molecular triggers involved in the development of malignant melanoma has been unravelled
Surgeons Sergey V Stonogin, specialist in infectious cases, Eugeny V Dvorovenko, Head of Emergency Surgery, and Vladimir A Chaplin, endoscopy specialist - report on results from their study to assess the most effective, safe combination of antibiotics to treat patients with acute appendicitis complicated by chickenpox
Bologna - The University Hospital S.Orsola-Malpighi has 1,800 beds and is one of the largest to install the DNLab management system. With 150 workstations connected to the LIS and over 50 analysers, each day, the two laboratories (central and microbiology) receive almost 3,000 orders and carry out over nine million tests annually. Hospital wards and departments are connected via Web to the LIS…
An unparalleled legal challenge has been underway in the EU regarding the number of human gene patents held by US-based corporation Myriad Genetics.
AIDS, SARS and now H5NI; just a brief beginning or the end? As the virus moves towards Europe, and millions of birds are slaughtered, interest has risen in a Chinese herb, a patent-sharing controversy and drug stockpiling
To establish which materials allow pathogens to survived best, micro-organisms such as bacteria living in wet and dry environments, pathogenic fungi and the bacterium Escherichia coli, have been studied during comparative tests undertaken at the Hygiene Institute of the University of Leipzig.
The fundamental role of inflammation in almost all disease processes has been increasingly recognised over several years.
The decoding of the genome has made it possible for molecular biology specialists to detect predispositions for illnesses and treat them accordingly.
USA - Scientists are confident that the virus that caused severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is no longer circulating in humans, or other animals, according to Professor Kathryn Holmes, a microbiology expert at the University of Colorado, USA.
The function of cell membrane is to maintain the stability of a cell's interior by regulating the amounts and types of molecules entering or leaving the cell.
Globally, about two million people die each year after consuming spoilt food, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
An extensive international study, presented at the American Society for Microbiology meeting in New Orleans, concludes that baby foods contain worrying levels of disease-causing microbes, including Enterobacter sakazakii (linked to some fatal outbreaks of meningitis at children's hospitals in Europe and the USA*).
Scientists at biopharm firm Pathogen Removal and Diagnostic Technologies Inc* (PRDT) recently confirmed their identification of lead ligands capable of specifically targeting certain 'challenging' viruses.
Monitoring and rapidly introducing new developments into everyday practice is an increasingly difficult task for many doctors. Additionally, patients are more informed due to media medical reports, which raise their expectations that doctors can offer a quick, reliable interpretation of the latest medical data.
Due to economic pressure, laboratories increasingly consolidate and automate procedures. Further cost reductions could come about through miniaturisation and multi-parameter tests.
