Europe kicks off prion research network

Mental mapping project kicks off in Japan.

What would a map of every single human idea look like? Darryl Macer, associate professor at the Institute of Biological Sciences at Tsukuba University in Japan, unveiled a preliminary model at the 8th International Tsukuba Bioethics Roundtable meeting (Feb 15–18, 2003). Macer advocates the creation of a human mental map to illustrate the diversity of ideas both within and between cultures and t...

The campaign to revitalise academic medicine kicks off.

Most cardiologists will be aware of the problems that exist at present in academic medicine, and the fact that many of the most able academic doctors do not go into academe. The inevitable consequence is that progress is slowed. The BMJ is spearheading a campaign to revitalise this issue and have appointed Professor Peter Tugwell to coordinate this project—one of his first steps was to write an...

The Localization of Pharmaceutical Clinical Research in Europe

Background: Clinical research is a specific phase of the production process in the pharmaceutical industry in which companies test candidate drugs on patients in order to collect clinical evidence about safety and effectiveness.Objective: This paper is an operational research which aimed to support the hypothesis that pharmaceutical clinical research is l...

Aeroacoustics Research in Europe

Reversible off and on switching of prion infectivity via removing and reinstalling prion sialylation

The innate immune system provides the first line of defense against pathogens. To recognize pathogens, this system detects a number of molecular features that discriminate pathogens from host cells, including terminal sialylation of cell surface glycans. Mammalian cell surfaces, but generally not microbial cell surfaces, have sialylated glycans. Prions or PrP(Sc) are proteinaceous pathogens tha...