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Basic, translational, and clinical research are the foundation of European health systems and services, and the social, cultural, The and environmental factors that affect health need to be linked in a European multidisciplinary approach. Research Council (ERC) meets the require- An important solution for the health challenges Europe faces in- ments of research excellence, but volves rethinking conventional biomedical practices and converting the fi eld of biomedicine in the hitherto to personalised medicine. Stratifi ed Medicine, the fi rst step towards given ERC grants has not been prominent. personalised medicine is where an existing disease is classifi ed The ERC should be strengthened as proposed and into subsets of patients that respond to different therapies. These biomedicine should have a more prominent role. Also, the groups are defi ned either through different response to therapy or spend should be more commensurate with the scale of the disor- new diagnostic methods. Personalised Medicine is where, through ders – currently brain disorders account for one third of European the use of advanced diagnostics, novel combinations of therapies health disability yet only receive one 6th the research spend. are identifi ed where the combination is specifi c for an individual Europe needs a strong new generation of medical researchers who patient. Each specifi c combination of two or more agents may are trained to deal with the various aspects of basic, translational, appropriate for only one in a thousand or one in ten thousand pa- and clinical research. Critical to this training programme is a cross- tients. This is an emerging concept in investigator sponsored studies disciplinary approach and international mobility. In this respect, the that will become more and more common in cancer as the number Marie Curie Actions are highly important and should be continued of agents with companion diagnostics become available. Because and extended into the clinical arena. our understanding of the molecular pathology of disease grows, this principle will be applied to many other disease using existing Research excellence needs excellent research infrastructures that not and new medicines. only underpin research but also lead its development and create an attractive climate for world-class researchers. There is encouraging One specifi c goal involves dealing with the huge health problems progress in the area of research infrastructure in Europe and the related to overweight and obesity. Prevention is of obvious impor- European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) should tance and there is an urgent need for further research into how be implemented in biomedical research. The ESFRI Roadmap 2010 physical activity and training, in addition to nutrition, can prevent contains the following nine research infrastructures for the biomedi- the steadily increasing average body mass index of Europeans. cal sciences: BBMRI (for biobanking and biomolecular resources); This proposal includes a vision that integrates a lifestyle of healthy EATRIS (for translational research); ECRIN (for clinical research); habits with an environment that promotes healthy living by encour- ELIXIR (underpins biological information and data storage for aging exercise and making healthy food affordable. This requires biomedical research); EUOPEN SCREEN (for screening platforms cross-disciplinary work not only with architects and designers but for chemical biology); EuroBiolmaging (for biomedical imaging also with the food and beverage industry. Many of our current infrastructure); MIRRI (for microbiological services); Infrafrontier (for health problems stem from lifestyle factors greatly infl uenced by phenotyping and archiving of model mammalian genomes); and marketing and industry. More work must be done with the food ERINHA (for high-safety laboratories). Securing further founding for industry to help persuade them to make healthier food by reducing the ESFRI-project could be effectively linked to the Structural Funds. the amount of saturated fat, trans fat, sugar, and salt. Data collection and input need to be harmonised and more Empowerment and education of people with knowledge and skills advanced integrative IT tools are essential for connecting to make informed choices about their health and wellbeing and databases. Furthermore, novel research methodology, including motivate them to become better selfmanagers is a further key topic. new mathematical models and statistical tools, will be needed and relevant facilities for biostatistics and bioinformatics must be TECHNOLOGIES AND PRIORITIES established. Mathematicians have developed extremely powerful There are technologies available to meet the above challenges models with a wide spectrum of applications. Modelling can lead and the development of new technologies will be a key factor to groundbreaking innovations in many areas of utmost interest, in meeting the goals. A multi-disciplinary approach is necessary for example from pharmacokinetics to cancer treatment; the inter- now more than ever. pretation of medical imaging to data mining in statistics; and from the design of prostheses to the use of electronic aids. The ESFRI proposals are relevant for this. 24


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