Editorial

Dear Readers

For you it may still seem a long way off, but for us it is already very close: June 23–26, 2013 will see the sixth European CLINAM-ETPN Summit of Clinical Nanomedicine and Targeted Medicine. The focus topic is: “Nanomedicine & Targeted Medicine – the paradigm of precise, highly effective and innocuous medicine for the benefit of patients and mankind”.

At the Basel meeting, we aim to present the lessons learned as well as the facts and figures regarding the development and characterization of nanomedicines as they are now available for improving the translation from research to nanomedicine and targeted medicine. We are inviting the most skilled professionals from all over the world. After last May’s conference with more than 350 participants from 31countries, we have so far received confirmation from 50 speakers for 2013. They have committed themselves to develop fascinating debates on extending the limits of cutting edge results in nanomedicine and targeted medicine, to learn from each other and arrange future cooperations.

CLINAM 6/13 will have a substantial foyer exhibition. Here new business will be forged between industrial companies from the pharmaceutical and technology sectors. You will find the space to discuss and set the framework conditions for future cooperation between experts. This platform offers particularly significant benefits to SMEs: rather than a broad mix of participants, you will find a community entirely dedicated to this specific field in a closely knit gathering. As every year in Basel a “University Village” offers ample opportunity to keep up to date with the state of the art at the universities from Europe and around the world. We are looking forward to meeting you in person in Basel next June!

CLINAM can look back on a very full year and is now involved in three European Union Framework Programme-supported projects responsible for dissemination, exploitation and international communication. Besides Nanomed2020 (cf. article on ETPN in this issue) the “DiscoGnosis-Project” (“Disc-shaped point-of-care platform for infectious disease diagnosis”) attracted a lot of attention: Coordinated by the Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK) at the University of Freiburg, the project is being realized in close collaboration with Rohrer AG, Basel University Hospital and the European Foundation for Clinical Nanomedicine (CLINAM) from Switzerland, the University Medical Center Göttingen from Germany, Magnamedics Diagnostics BV from the Netherlands and the MAST Group Ltd from the UK. Multidisciplinary teams involving biologists, chemists, engineers and clinicians will cooperate on the realization of this ambitious project. Its core objective is to develop a device that would allow the detection of malaria and the differentiation between similar pathogenic diseases within minutes in a non-invasive way. Malaria is one of the most critical health threats. An estimated 260 million people become infected every year; 650,000 cases lead to death, 20% of which are in small children. The disease is still on the advance mainly in Africa and other tropical developing countries, with acute fever being the only symptom. In the affected regions, fever can also result from Salmonella typhi/paratyphi bacteria as well as from Dengue or Chikungunya viruses, all of which, like malaria, are transmitted by mosquitoes. It is therefore vital to establish accurate diagnostic tools to distinguish between these diseases and apply the appropriate therapy. Clinical surveys have shown that 30%–40% of non-infected patients are wrongly treated for malaria as a result of inaccurate diagnosis. In this sense the advances being made in nanomedical technology for the health sector are an excellent opportunity to tackle the still largely unsolved problems of medicine in a novel way.

The CLINAM Foundation wishes you all a happy New Year and a lot of success in developing targeted medicine and nanomedicine for the benefit of patients and mankind.