EU Monitor
The Commission is mobilising €123 million from Horizon Europe, the new EU i research and innovation programme, for urgent research into coronavirus variants. This first emergency funding under Horizon Europe adds to a range of EU-funded research and innovation actions to fight the coronavirus and contributes to the Commission s overall action to prevent, mitigate and respond to the impact of coronavirus variants, in line with the new European bio-defence preparedness plan HERA Incubator.
Gabriel i, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said:
“We continue to mobilise all means at our disposal to fight this pandemic and the challenges presented by coronavirus variants. We must use our combined strength to be prepared for the future, starting from the early detection of the variants to the organisation and coordination of clinical trials for new vaccines and treatments, while ensuring correct data collection and sharing at all stages.
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Around three times as many males are diagnosed with autism than females. This suggests that biological sex factors may play a role in the development and presentation of autism.
Studies on the neurobiology (brain biology) of males and females with autism have begun to examine brain networks but results have been mixed. This is largely due to the limited availability of data from autistic females.
In response, researchers from Child Mind Institute and colleagues involved in the AIMS2TRIALS, have combined thousands of MRI data openly available for scientific discovery in the Autism Brain Imaging Exchange (ABIDE) repository to explore brain network differences between autistic and neurotypical control males and females. They used the ABIDE sample for discovery of new information and two additional large samples to see if those findings could be repeated (i.e., replicated). These included one sample derived from the Gender Explorations of Neurogenetics and Development to Adv
The partnerships, linking Commission efforts with other governments and industry, are a central part of EU strategy to harness science and technology to solve global problems while also strengthening European industry – a mix of
pro bono and pro-Europe policies. Since this type of formal partnership began in 2002, however, it has often prompted controversy, with critics saying it gives industry too much say or benefit at taxpayer expense.
In a statement February 23, the Commission argued that the partnerships are expected “to mobilise additional investments in support of the [green and digital] transitions, and create long-term impacts on employment, the environment and society.” The budget of nearly €10 billion EU would be matched by comparable sums from the public and private partners.
International consortium to provide recommendations for understanding PRO data in cancer clinical trials
An international multidisciplinary consortium, co-led by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and Boehringer Ingelheim (BI), has been convened to generate recommendations to standardize the use, analysis, and interpretation of patient-reported outcome (PRO) data in cancer clinical trials.
SISAQOL-IMI (Setting International Standards of Patient-Reported Outcomes and Quality of Life Endpoints in Cancer Clinical Trials - IMI) will establish guidance on how to use patient-reported outcomes in cancer clinical trials so that they can be used in a methodologically sound way, analyzed in a statistically adequate manner, and intelligibly presented to ensure a high study quality and better comparability of results across clinical trials.
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IMAGE: 3D reconstructions of superior (left) and inferior (right) brain regions, showing regions with lower metabolism associated with the presence of atherosclerotic plaques in the carotid arteries. The color code indicates. view more
Credit: CNIC
The links between cardiovascular disease and cognitive impairment begin years before the appearance of the first clinical symptoms of either condition. In a study carried out at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC) in partnership with Santander Bank and neuroimaging experts at the Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC, the research center of the Fundación Pasqual Maragall), the investigators have identified a link between brain metabolism, cardiovascular risk, and atherosclerosis during middle age, years before the first appearance of symptoms.