Research News Apr 01, 2014 Empty nets and few species – environmental hormones are believed responsible for the diminishing numbers of fish. How damaging are these substances really, though? Studies that depict a complete picture of the lives of fish provide clues.

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Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology is organizing an international conference on plant pathology from 4-5th of June 2014 in Aachen, Germany. Through its extensive scientific program, keynote presentations, plenary lectures, the conference will highlight the state of art development in plant-pathogen interactions, pathogen resistance and host susceptibility. The renowned scientists from the field will deliberate on achieving the goal of developing disease-resistant crops. The keynote speakers for this conference are Prof. Dr. Dierk Scheel, Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry Halle, and Prof. Dr. Rainer Fischer Senior Executive Director Fraunhofer IME, Aachen. The conference is co-sponsored by the BMBF and DAAD program »Modern Applications of Biotechnology«.

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One of Fraunhofer IME`s projects is among the finalists of this year`s GreenTec Awards. The GreenTec Awards is Europe’s largest environmental and business prize. Once a year the Awards honor environmental commitment and green technologies. The joint project with CONTINENTAL »RUBIN - Dandelion RUBber Goes Industrial« was nominated in the category Automobility. On on Feb 25th the jury will choose the winner out of the three nominees per category.

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Sanofi and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft announced today the creation of a natural product center of excellence to accelerate the discovery and development of new therapies to treat infectious diseases. Under the agreement, Sanofi and Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME will collaborate to identify and optimize novel naturally occurring chemical or biological compounds, mainly in the field of infectious diseases.

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The Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME will be represented on this year’s BIOTECHNICA in Hannover. From 8th-10th of October scientist will present research findings from different topics at the joint Fraunhofer stand in Hall 9, Booth E 09. This year focus is on the production of biopharmaceuticals in plants and the development of innovative detection technologies.

The 11th Malaria Meeting will be held on November 08 and 09 2013 at the Fraunhofer IME Aachen. The Malaria Meeting ist a joint event of the of the Malaria group (section Antiparasitic Chemotherapy) of the Paul-Ehrlich-Society (PEG e.V.) in cooperation with the German Society for Tropical Medicine and international Health (DTG e.V.). The meeting will be hosted by the Fraunhofer IME together with RWTH Aachen University.

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As part of the Innovation Union flagship initiative, the European Commission organized the first Innovation Convention which took place December 5th-6th, in Brussels. The EU FP6 project Pharma-Planta, which was coordinated by Fraunhofer IME, was one of only 48 projects invited to the convention, and was selected from more than 450 applications. It was also the only Fraunhofer project at the convention and the only one with a 100% life sciences content. The project ran from February 2004 to October 2011 and was lauded as a great success by representatives of the European Commission at its closing meeting. The project achieved all its goals, including the development of an approved production process for plant-based pharmaceuticals and the completion of the first human clinical trial of a plant-derived monoclonal antibody.

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The EU-funded project Pharma-Planta has succeeded in producing an anti-HIV antibody in plants and has tested it in humans, with a positive result. This antibody could one day become an inexpensive component used to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. The "Phase I" clinical trial was launched at the University of Surrey Clinical Research Centre (UK) in June and has just been completed. Further clinical testing will be required to assess the new drug's effectiveness. The Pharma-Planta project has delivered not only a clinical product tested on humans but also a production platform and facility that can be used to produce other protein-based pharmaceuticals.

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