Earlier this year, Belgian immunology professor Michel Goldman was named as the new Executive Director of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) Joint Technology Initiative (JTI). Before starting work in his new post on 16 September, he spoke to CORDIS News about his career so far and his hopes for the IMI.

A physician by training, Michel Goldman started his career caring for patients with kidney ...

The Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure (BBMRI) has passed a major milestone by completing a review of more than 300 major European biobanks. Project managers Professor Kurt Zatloukal of the Medical University of Graz, Austria and Professor Eero Vuorio of the University of Turku, Finland spoke with CORDIS News about BBMRI's current efforts to make the collective content of the ...

Europe has put the pressure on both the research sector and industry to develop innovative knowledge-based multicomponent materials (KMM) for durable and safe performances. Rising to meet this challenge was the EU-funded KMM-NoE project, a Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) Network of Excellence in the field of advanced materials like intermetallics and metal-ceramic composites. The project received EUR 8.1 ...

The fight against leukaemia and malaria - two of the world's most virulent diseases - was rewarded in two out of the four categories at the recent European Inventor of the Year awards.

Swiss medicinal chemist Dr Jürg Zimmermann along with US oncologist Dr Brian Druker won the award in the Industry category for his invention of the drug Glivec. Glivec has a 98% remission rate in people suffering from ...

Last year, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) set up the Center for Science Diplomacy. In an interview with CORDIS News, the Center's director, Vaughan Turekian, talked about its work and explains why he thinks Europe offers one of the best examples of what science diplomacy can do.

So, what is science diplomacy? According to Dr Turekian, in its broadest terms it is 'the use ...

Nanotechnology has the potential to improve the foods we eat, making them tastier, healthier and more nutritious. Yet little is known about how nanoparticles behave in the body, or what kind of toxic effects they could have. Hermann Stamm works on this issue for the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC); he gave a presentation on the topic of nanofoods at the American Association for the Advancement ...

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is increasingly being used by parents who want to avoid passing on genetic diseases to their children. The European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) organised a workshop on this often controversial topic at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago, US.

The JRC's Dolores Ibarreta, who has been monitoring trends ...

Most of us don't realise it, but the soil beneath our feet is a veritable treasure trove of life; just one teaspoon of soil can harbour millions of organisms. What's more, soil provides us with a range of vital services, including climate regulation and flood prevention. Yet even as scientists get to grips with the incredible diversity and functions of soil life, threats like erosion, pollution and urbanisation ...

'Nuclear will come back, and will play its role in the energy mix of the key industrial countries,' stated Roland Schenkel, Director-General of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC). Dr Schenkel was talking to CORDIS News ahead of a session on nuclear energy organised by the JRC at the Annual Meeting of the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) in Chicago, US.

The JRC ...

Dr Enric Banda, a geophysicist and president of the 2,100-member-strong grassroots organisation Euroscience, spoke with CORDIS News about the importance of young scientists, the impact of economic crises on scientific careers and the challenge of building a strong science and technology base in Europe.

Euroscience is an 11-year-old organisation that gives a voice to scientists at the European level. 'It's ...