Health Meaning

Flu researcher Ron Fouchier loses legal fight Over H5N1 - studies

virologist Ron Fouchier suffered a loss of a legal battle with the Dutch government on the publication of his controversial research on H5N1 . On Friday, a Dutch district court ruled that the government was right to ask Fouchier to obtain an export license before sending two documents hotly debated for publication. The decision, published yesterday (Dutch), could provide new dams for research Fouchier in the future.

The issue is hotly debated document Fouchier of showing that some mutations may H5N1, a virus that normally infects birds, transmitted through the air between ferrets, which was published in science in June 2012. the fight also involved a companion paper published in the same issue in which Fouchier and others have tried to assess the likelihood that these viruses arise spontaneously in nature.

The Dutch government considered sending the documents to science a form of "export" and Fouchier necessary to formally ask the first official authorization. In doing so, the government has correctly interpreted E.Ü. regulations aimed at preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the technology called "dual-use" which could be used for good or evil, the court of Haarlem said.

The decision means that the future studies- H5N1 transmissibility Fouchier which resumed after a worldwide moratorium ended in January-would require an official stamp of approval as well. The same could be true for similar studies involving H7N9, a strain that emerged in China this spring, because the government could consider studies that give the virus to new capabilities as providing results dual use.

Fouchier was available for comment today, but he has said in previous interviews that the Dutch government infringes on academic freedom and he and other scientists in the Netherlands putting at a disadvantage compared with scientists from other countries.

Working H5N1 Fouchier triggered an outcry around the world at the end of 2011, with a similar study by Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin, Madison and the University of Tokyo, when the US National science Advisory Board for biosecurity (NSABB) ruled that he should not be released without hitting the most sensitive details. In the wrong hands, the reasoned NSABB, studies could be used to turn H5N1 into a bioweapon. The board reversed that decision in March 2012 and gave the papers a green light.

But while Kawaoka paper was published online in Nature in early May 2012, the study Fouchier was retained longer because of the position of the Dutch government.

Fouchier requested an export license subject and received April 27, 2012, to allow the paper to finally be published. But Erasmus MC has also filed an appeal against the decision of the Government; when the government rejected, he took the matter to the District Court.

The government based its decision on E.Ü. regulations issued in 09 aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. These rules impose limits on exports, trade and transfer of a range of materials, including the dangerous flu virus and are also valid for the technical expertise that could be used to make such weapons .

Erasmus MC and Fouchier argued that the rules do not apply to paper Fouchier as an annex of the document carves exceptions for "basic scientific research" and for the information already "in the public domain . "ferrets studies were fundamental scientific research, counsel for Fouchier argued, because researchers have sought to better understand the transmissibility of mammal a strain of influenza; Meanwhile, the methods used in study to generate mutants have been described previously and were well known.

the court, which heard arguments in the case on August 29, do not buy this line of reasoning. Make H5N1 airborne was not only basic research, but was a "practical purpose," the judges said, and while the methods previously described, the researchers had to avoid hollowing out "took action and made choices that led to completely new results." the regulations, any exception "must be interpreted strictly," the court said, adding that he is not the researchers to decide if their work is basic research.

the court recognized that its decision could result in delays in the dissemination of scientific information, but said that "disadvantage" is outweighed by the importance of the prevention of proliferation.

Fouchier and Erasmus MC have six weeks to take their case to the Amsterdam Court of Appeal.

Scour The Scalp: Some Lice Eggs Hatching Before Linger -

Here are some lousy news for parents of children biting head: Lice eggs can take 2 weeks to hatch in the hair humans, which makes the standard 7 days treatment delousing ineffective in some cases. New research shows that if the conditions are good, eggs, called nits, can sit dormant for treatment, only to appear later and re-infest the scalp. A third application may be necessary after 14 days to remove nits hatch slow, they say.

Lice do lay their eggs directly on the skin instead, they lay nits at the base of the hair stems. The timing of the outbreak louse on a human head is difficult to follow because adult lice lay eggs continuously, obscuring earlier hatches, and the effectiveness of traditional insecticides on eggs varies. Previous estimates of how long remain viable nits only to 14 days, but most of this work from the 1920s and 1930s, when researchers reared body lice inside boxes attached to the arm or ankle of a person. More recent work is based on head lice raised in laboratory incubators, which are more stable than the wide range of temperatures and cleanliness found on a human scalp.

For a more reliable estimate, medical entomologist Ian Burgess of Insect Research & Development Ltd. in Cambridgeshire, UK, analyzed data from 20 previous studies on treatments that kill lice by physical means, such as lotions that suffocate insects, but do not kill the eggs. They do not include insecticide treatments for lice across the UK have developed resistance to standard drugs, Burgess said, leading more doctors to try a brute force approach that does not rely on insecticides.

1895 Data patients revealed cases where newly hatched found technicians lice nymphs on the 14th day after the start of treatment, even if the second application the scalp was held seven days before. "Some [nymphs] had emerged just an hour or two before checking," said Burgess. To exclude cases where reinfestation of another child had occurred, or when adults had escaped little lice treatment, it excluded cases with lice that have emerged over the number of days since the last treatment. Nearly two dozen cases have remained-enough to check a handful of nits may last longer than standard treatment protocols, Burgess reported in an upcoming issue of Medical and Veterinary Entomology.

Although the treatments themselves may play a role, the temperature of a person's scalp is likely to be the most important factor in the time it takes to hatch eggs, Burgess said. Location and hair issues as: Lice grow faster in warmer temperatures, so they will hatch more quickly when on the warm, thick hair at the nape as the thinner hair on top and in front of the scalp

analysis is the most rigorous yet to quantify the outbreak louse times, said Rich Pollack, an entomologist of public health at Harvard University. "It must be considered by those trying to make a management decision process," said Pollack, noting that only a small number of patients may need a third dose.

New insecticides oral may make the issue of time of incubation theoretical, Pollack notes. These drugs now available by prescription in the United States, are up to 85% effective in killing lice and eggs with a dose sparing spraying scalp's parents several times a child squirms.

Extreme diets can quickly Alter intestinal bacteria -

With all the recent talk about how gut bacteria affect health and disease, it begins to seem like they could be in charge of our body. But we can have our say by what we eat. For the first time in humans, the researchers showed that a radical change in diet can quickly change the microbial composition in the gut and also change what these bacteria do. The study takes a first step to identify how these microbes, collectively the intestinal microbiome, can be used to keep us healthy.

"It is a landmark study," said Rob Knight, a microbial ecologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who was not involved in the work. "It changes our view of the speed of the microbiome may change."

Almost every month, a new study suggests a link between bacteria living in the gut and diseases ranging from obesity to autism, at least in mice. Researchers have struggled, however, immobilizing the links between health and the microbes in humans, in part because it is difficult to make people change their diet for weeks and months that researchers thought need to change the gut microbes and see a health effect.

But in 09, Peter Turnbaugh, a microbiologist at Harvard University, demonstrated in mice that the change in diet affected the microbiome in a day. So he and Laurent David, now a biologist calculation at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, decided to see if the diet could have an immediate effect in humans too. They recruited 10 volunteers to eat only what the researchers provided for 5 days. Half ate only animal bacon and eggs for breakfast; spareribs and chest for lunch; salami and a selection of cheese for dinner with pork rinds and string cheese as snacks. The other half consumed a high-fiber, plant-only diet with grains, beans, fruits and vegetables. For the few days before and after the experiment, the volunteers recorded what they ate so that the researchers could evaluate how dietary intake differed.

The scientists isolated DNA and other molecules, as well as bacteria from stool samples from before, during and after the experiment. This way they could identify bacterial species were present in the intestines and what they produced. The researchers also examined the activity of genes in microbes.

Within each diet group, the differences between microbiomes volunteers began to disappear. The types of bacteria in the intestines do not change much, but the abundance of these different types have, especially in meat eaters, David Turnbaugh, and colleagues reported online today in Nature . In 4 days, the bacteria known to tolerate high levels of bile acids increased significantly in meat eaters. (The body secretes more bile to digest meat.) The activity of genes, which reflects how the bacteria were metabolizing food, has also changed a little. In eating meat, genes involved in protein degradation have increased their activity, while in food plants, other genes that help digest carbohydrates resurfaced. "What was really surprising is that the gene [activity] profiles conform almost exactly what [is seen] in herbivores and carnivores," David said. This same rapid change has occurred in the long-term vegetarian who switched to meat for the study, he said. "I'm really surprised how quickly it happened."

From the perspective of evolution, that intestinal bacteria can contribute to mitigating the effects of a rapid change in diet food, reviving quickly different metabolic capabilities based on meal consumed, may have been useful to early humans, said David. But this flexibility also has possible implications for health today.

"this is a very important aspect of a very hot area of ​​science, "writes Colin Hill, a microbiologist at University college Cork in Ireland, which has not participated. "Perhaps by adjusting diet, we can shape the microbiome in ways that can promote health," added Sarkis Mazmanian, a microbiologist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, also affiliated with the study.

But how it should be shaped is still in the air. "We are not yet at the point where we can make significant dietary recommendations to" improve "the microbiota (and host)" wrote Hill. He and others are cautious, for example, on the consequences of the increase in any bacterium, Bilophila wadsworthia , in meat eaters than in mice is associated with inflammatory bowel disease and diets high in fat. Knight said, "There is still a long way to go before causation is established"

So Hill best advice for today. "People should ideally consume a varied diet with nutrients and micronutrient-whether derived from appropriate animal or plant or a mixed system. "

Final gift from a billionaire to Six U.S. Cancer Centers -

A trust fund created by billionaire shipping magnate Daniel K. Ludwig ends today with a bang and donated for research. Six US medical centers will receive $ 540 million- $ 0 million each-funds to provide cancer studies in perpetuity, or until the cancer is no longer a problem, as specified in the will left by Ludwig, who is died in 1992. in all, his estate gave $ 2.5 billion in cancer research since the 1970s

new money goes to Ludwig centers already located six elite research institutions: . Harvard Medical School in Boston; Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland; Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge; Cancer Center Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York; Stanford University in Palo Alto; and the University of Chicago. Ludwig had established trust the same centers in 06.

Financing by the Ludwig Trust was "sort of under the radar," said oncologist Kenneth Kinzler, who with Bert Vogelstein, co-directs the Ludwig Center at Hopkins. These are among the most coveted awards in the biomedical field, said Kinzler. The money is held for endowment and comes with few strings attached just a mandate to investigate cancer and find ways to stop it. There is no progress reports or renewal requests to write, Kinzler said, which "allows you to focus on what you think give the most important results without worrying about respect artificial intermediate deadlines."

the Ludwig group seeks clinical outcomes, Kinzler said, a goal that he and Vogelstein heavily. Without money Ludwig, the Hopkins group was not able to make cancer genetic studies, they are famous for, he notes, for example, the duo used surveys of Exome to identify genes associated with colon and breast cancer.

size Ludwig endowments makes a difference, says Jedd Wolchok cancer immunologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering ". It allows a budget of respectable research "Wolchok figures that the budget of his group for Cancer Immunology Research will double this year, an increase of" several million dollars "and will continue to grow, thanks to the money earned by staffing. For Wolchok, this means that "we can go from concept to clinical research very, very quickly." For example, he expects his group to launch a clinical trial in two months to test a therapeutic antibody developed by a Japanese company that could be used to modulate the T cells that regulate the immune response. The team Memorial Sloan-Kettering also has a number of ongoing clinical trials to monitor immune system reactions to various cancer therapies, including radiation.

Ludwig, a friend of President Richard Nixon, was a supporter of Nixon unconditional "war against cancer" that has been linked to the Congressional legislation that restored National Cancer Institute of the United States in 1971. this year, the shipping magnate has created an independent in New York, the Ludwig Institute for cancer research. The organization now has an endowment of more than $ 1.2 billion and employs more than 0 people, including scientists in six countries outside the United States, according to the institute CEO Edward McDermott Jr.

the philosophy behind this research network, McDermott said, is that which led Ludwig McDermott adds "in its to personal business enterprises find the best people and resources as well". "We are investing in science, not science special. ... We are not in the area of ​​discovery, because of the discovery. It is a means to an end, which is improved patient outcomes. So we are very committed to infrastructure ... allow us to take our patient's bedside to the laboratory findings. "McDermott said that the institute has sponsored more than 100 clinical trials and eight during this time. these are focused on cancer immunotherapy.

Spanish HIV Researcher Faces € 210,000 fine on an unauthorized clinical trial -

MADRID A Spanish researcher HIV / AIDS is facing a hefty fine for violating the regulation of clinical trials. An appeals court upheld most of the verdict of a lower court against Vicente Soriano, a doctor at the Hospital Carlos III here and well known clinical investigator with hundreds of publications to his name.

Soriano is responsible for € 210,000 to conduct a clinical trial without the approval of the Spanish Agency of medicines and health products, failing to get insurance for the trial, and inform the meeting that he had his hospital ethics approval when he did not, according to the decision, which was released on January 14. But the court overturned a € 6,000 fine for obstructing the original investigation, which took place in 2010.

The clinical trial phase IV, Soriano registered on ClinicalTrials.gov in July 09, sought to determine whether HIV patients with undetectable virus in their blood levels can replace so-called protease inhibitors in their treatment of cocktail with a new potent compound, raltegravir, the first in a class called inhibitors integrase, which has fewer side effects. Soriano's team divided patients into three groups with different treatment regimens; a group raltegravir once daily instead of twice the standard. (Simplifying a treatment regimen may help patients adhere.) The study included 311 patients, 222 completed 24 weeks of follow-up; an article in HIV Clinical Trials in 2010 showed that raltegravir successfully removed the virus in all but 13 of them.

An anonymous tipster told the Madrid health service that the trial lacked the proper regulatory and ethical approvals, according to the court decision, and between 24 and 29 November 2010, the Department sent inspectors to examine the records of Soriano. In October 2011, a Madrid court issued a fine of € 216,000

Soriano appealed the fines on various points. the core of its defense, however, supported by three witnesses Spanish experts was that the study was retrospective and observational, and that treatment changes were in the normal range of what doctors might recommend for any patient.

One of the seven judges hearing the case in the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid agreed but the majority did not. They wrote in the verdict that "the call is to avoid that the proposed project not only a change in dose, but also a change in medicine." One of the expert witnesses seem to obscure the fact that patients have was put on a new type of drug by asserting without proof that they were already raltegravir, the court added. fines, two for "very serious" offenses and one for a "serious" offenses, has was the lowest allowed by law.

"This study was undoubtedly a clinical trial," which would need the appropriate ethical approval, said bioethicist Ruth Macklin of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. After reviewing the study protocol Soriano, Macklin said that they are incompatible with observational studies.

Soriano refused to be interviewed about the trial or appeal, but in an e-mail to Science Insider, he said that he and his group are victims of "harassment" related to a dismantling plan of the infectious diseases group at Carlos III. The hospital is in the midst of a merger with the Hospital La Paz in Madrid; both are owned by the Madrid regional government and coins were scheduled for privatization until this week, when a court ordered the cancellation of plans.

It is not known if the hospital will take action against Soriano. While his appeal was pending, he continued his medical practice, but the ethics committee did not approve all clinical trials of its since March 2011, said Rafael Pérez-Santamarina Feijoo, CEO of the hospital La Paz. Now that the final decision of the Court is available, the hospital will assess how to proceed, says Pérez-Santamarina. A spokesman of the Medical College of Madrid said Science Insider that it has taken no formal disciplinary action against Soriano.

700-Year-Old Shit Tracks History of Gut Microbes human -

Petrified human excrement 14th century revealed the first evidence of an arms race in the gut human . Our gut bacteria, it seems, were using antibiotics long before people have developed drugs such as penicillin.

The bacteria that live in the intestine are territorial little suckers. When new microbes arrive, the natives fight with antibiotics. Invaders react by developing an immunity to these compounds. Thus, indigenous bacteria in your gut still known as the strongest antibiotics microbiome-develop. This war was probably carried out in the human intestine since time immemorial, but scientists had little evidence of its history.

This has now changed, thanks to a surprise find in Namur, Belgium. An urban development project, he unearthed some historical bowel movements in 1996. Excavation in a city square revealed latrines medieval buried 4 meters deep. Every location sealed barrels of human waste that has not been broadcast in nearly 700 years.

Paleomicrobiologists carefully extracted fossilized feces known as coprolites (they look a bit like rocks shaped dunette-) -From barrels to prevent bacteria and virus contamination modern medieval microbes. A deposit of feces finally plopped preserved in the laboratory of virology Christelle DESNUES the research unit on infectious and emerging tropical diseases (URMITE) in Marseille, France.

His team bored in coprolite, extract a piece of its core about the weight of a nickel. The exposed electronic microscopy structures viruslike peppery through the samples. When the team sequenced the genomes of all viruses in the old shit, they discovered that most of them were loving bacteria viruses called bacteriophages, or "phages" for short. Phages are the cargo of the bacterial world, pick up the genes from one bacterium and transfer them to another. Occasionally, this process instills their bacterial hosts with an evolutionary advantage. Indeed, the researchers found modern phage shipping antibiotic resistance genes between bacteria that cause infections, increasing their virulence.

DESNUES and his team discovered that the coprolite phage genomes were packed with antibiotic resistance genes as they online report this month in Applied and Environmental Microbiology . This confirms that the bacteriophages are an ancient reservoir of resistance genes in the intestine, which dates as far back as the Middle Ages, said DESNUES.

A greater diversity of antibiotic resistance genes have been observed in the coprolite. "It is surprising that the old stool had more [antibiotic resistance] genes that samples of modern saddles," says Jeremy Barr, a microbiologist at San Diego State University in California, who was not involved in the study. If coprolithe sample is representative of the time period, the reduction of these genes over time may reflect the modern sanitation in the food supply or water weakened bacterial defenses of intestine, he said.

Interestingly, DESNUES research team reveals that also carried metabolic genes phages that equip host bacteria with the ability to process fats and amino acids, which are the traits that made them so useful to our first intestines. the members of the human microbiome helps us digest food, inflammation of mood, and can fight against obesity, so their resistance antibiotics actually benefits us.

"It is as if we need these phages as part of our microbiome," said Vincent Racaniello, a microbiologist at Columbia University, who was not involved in the research. He said that although the intestinal phage species have changed over time, key genes they share remained the same. "We evolved as human beings at home [gut phages] for the functions they provide that is the coolest part."

MERS more serious situation, but not an emergency yet Panel that says -

An international committee to advise the World Health Organization (WHO) today called on countries the Arabian Peninsula to improve hospital hygiene and help in achieving much needed studies on how the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) virus spreads. But the panel stopped declare the deadly new disease that emerged there 2 years ago, an international scope of emergency (USPI) Public Health.

There has been a dramatic increase in reported cases recently MERS, and calling the outbreak of a PHEIC would have given WHO the authority to issue travel advisories and other recommendations under Regulation International health. It would also increase the political pressure on the countries affected.

But after a conference call 5:00 yesterday, the Panel decided that the criteria for a PHEIC are not met, Keiji Fukuda, WHO's assistant director general for health security and the environment, announced at a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland, today. "They believe that the situation has grown in terms of its seriousness and urgency, but not at this point constitutes a PHEIC," Fukuda said.

Preben Aavitsland, a Norwegian epidemiologist who helped draft the International Health Regulations, the critical decision. "I personally think the information that is publicly available as the event must be declared USPI," said Aavitsland Science Insider in an email. "MERS is an international concern, it spreads to other countries, and there is a need for an international response." But David Heymann, a former executive director of communicable diseases at WHO and now head of the Centre on Global Health Security at Chatham House, it seems "right decision." "We have to trust the international organizations" Heymann said.

the emergency panel was established in July last year and has met four times before, most recently in December. After each meetings, he expressed concern, but concluded that it was too early to call emergency. The group will be invited to make a new assessment in a few weeks, Fukuda said.

in its latest set update, WHO puts the number of MERS infections to 536, including 145 deaths, but this official count is behind the figures announced by the governments of countries; .. the only Saudi Arabia has so far announced 157 deaths travelers also exported the virus to more than a dozen countries where MERS is not endemic. The United States announced a second imported case Monday, and the Netherlands reported its first day.

"suboptimal infection control practices" in hospitals and overcrowding in emergency rooms contributed to the rise, Fukuda said. The number of infections acquired outside the hospital also increased , he added ;. reasons for this are still unclear but he stressed that there is "no convincing evidence at this time to increase the transmissibility of the virus," which was one of the main reasons why the emergency committee has not declared a PHEIC. the Committee evaluated the genetic information available from five recent infections, three in Jeddah, one in Greece and the former US . "the genetic sequences of these latest viruses was much like sequences oldest virus," said Fukuda.

Aavitsland said the number of increasing cases could lead some countries to unilaterally introduce restrictions for travelers from the Middle East. "Declaring a PHEIC, WHO could put themselves in the driver's seat and give recommendations against such measures, which are very unlikely to be beneficial," wrote Aavitsland. "If someone [issues] travel restrictions against Saudi Arabia now, Oman and Lebanon can not declare if they have new cases tomorrow."

Statement of USPI could also exert more political pressure on Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region to fully confront the crisis. the world is still waiting for critical research, as a case-control study to ascertain how the virus makes its way from the likely reservoir camels animals to humans, Heymann said. "That's the real question. l the study has not been done to show whether this can be avoided through simple efforts "But just declaring a PHEIC to facilitate these studies would have been irresponsible, said Fukuda. "I hope the emergency increased sense pushing the barriers," he wrote in an email.

People should not interpret the panel ruling to mean everything is under control, said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for research and policy at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. infectious diseases "is not." It is obvious that some people called supershedders have infected many other people on the Arabian Peninsula, said Osterholm. " If it emerges elsewhere, the world will have a very different view on this. "

ScienceShot: Gonorrhea Microbe Uses' Grappling Hooks "to move from one person to -

gonorrhea passes from person to person through some clever hitchhiking. For 40 years, researchers thought that Neisseria gonorrhoeae , the bacterium that causes the sexually transmitted disease, glommed squirming sperm during sex. But the idea did not explain how women spent the STD to men. Now, a new study reported this month in MBIO shows that rather than using the sperm like a surfboard, N. gonorrhoeae draw bacteria called cable pili -on proteins in sperm to tow through the coital liquid. Pili are normally wrapped in packets (left panel, red arrow), but when exposed to seminal fluid, they relax into individual strands (right panel, the red arrows). This exposes more hooks grapples for transportation, strengthen the ability of the bacteria to invade by as much as 24 times. The seminal proteins also help the bacteria attach themselves to the skin cells grown in a dish, that line both the male and female genital tract, which helps the infection. Drugs that Unhook pili gonorrhea can give new antibacterial that counteract the transmission of this STD that infects 100 million people per year.

See Science Shots.

ScienceShot: Teen Drivers more likely to crash due to Noisy Friends What Cellphones -

[1945017téléphonesportables] Forget; rowdy friends can be the riskiest driver distraction for teenagers, according to new research. The researchers installed video recorders and G-Force in vehicles by 52 students of the newly authorized school for 6 months. They found that some distractions, such as playing with the controls of the car and eat, are not closely related to serious incidents, which included strikes and evasive maneuvers. However, when the passengers in the car were engaged in a loud conversation teenage drivers were six times more likely to have a serious incident. Moreover, horseplay increased risk by a factor of three while using cell phone than doubled it, the team reported online this week in the Journal of Adolescent Health . Forty-three states restrict newly licensed drivers to have more than one other teenager in the car, and the authors of the study say their data suggest that is a good policy.

See Science Plans.

EU. Commission rejects plea to block funding for research on stem cell -

Brussels The European Commission has rejected a request by pro-life organizations block E.Ü. funding for research using embryonic stem cells causing many scientists to breathe a sigh of relief. The commission said that the existing rules in the framework of the scientific program of the European Union, 2020, are appropriate and will not change.

Last month, the citizens' initiative called One of Us has asked the commission to stop fundraising in which embryos are destroyed. Because the initiative has reached 1 million signatures verified from seven or more Member States, the Commission had to formally consider the proposal.

"We have engaged with this citizens' initiative and gave his demand full attention," said the research Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn in a statement today . " However, Member States and the European Parliament agreed to continue seeking funding in this area for a reason. Embryonic stem cells are unique and offer the potential to save the lives of treatments, clinical trials already underway. "

Commission the answer is" very wise, "said Tullio Pozzan, director of the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the National Research Council in Italy and member of the medical committee of science in Europe. Demand for One of Us "was not based on science but on philosophical or religious" ones, he said. stem cells should be pursued even if human therapy is not currently practice Pozzan added.

Robin Buckle, head of regenerative medicine at the medical Research Council in the UK, also welcomed the decision of the commission. "It is essential that the Commission approved its existing support in this area," Buckle said, "that new restrictions could have been very damaging to science and European competitiveness. "

the relevant regulations between member states will E.Ü. permissive, eg Belgium and the United Kingdom of an outright ban on research using human embryonic stem cells in Poland and Lithuania. At the E.Ü. level, research is eligible for Horizon 2020 funding only if it is legal in the country where it takes place and spent a scientific and ethical review. In addition, scientists receiving E.Ü. money can use leftover embryos granted by couples from in vitro fertilization procedures, but are not allowed to create embryonic stem cells for their research.

Proponents of a petition we say that this provision is too liberal. For support, they cite a decision in 2011 by the European Court of Justice in Brüstle v. Greenpeace , they say "indicates that fertilization is the beginning of human life and in the name of human dignity excludes the patentability of any procedure that involves or necessitates the destruction of a human embryo. "

But the commission said that this decision does not concern the financing of science. "[T] he power was limited to the patentability of biotechnological inventions and does not deal with the question of whether such a search can be performed and whether it can be financed," the commission argued in another declaration of today.

Under the previous EU research program from 07 to 2013, the EU spent € 156.7 million on 27 cooperation projects in health research involving the use of human embryonic stem cells. The total amount 2.6% of all E.Ü. spending on health research over this period.