News from the European Foundation for Nanomedicine (CLINAM)

Dear Readers

The CLINAM-Foundation is already preparing the 7th European Summit for Clinical Nanomedicine and Targeted Medicine, to be held in Basel from June 22–25, 2014.

CLINAM has become the indispensable worldwide platform that brings together Clinical Nanomedicine and Targeted Medicine. The next conference will set this in context with Personalized Medicine. The international debate on precise, highly effective novel nanodrugs will be of crucial importance to pave the way to Personalized Diagnostics & Personalized Medicine. Next year’s exhibition will be larger than last June. We will also introduce some parts of the conference in a new structure offering speed dating tables on predefined topics, where experts will give 20 minutes sessions for answering questions.

Next year’s conference will be opened again with a keynote lecture of a Nobel Laureate. This time it will be Prof. Aaron Ciechanover from the Vascular and Cancer Biology Research Center, The Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Research Institute Technion in Haifa with an introduction to Personalized Medicine: From Treatment of a Disease to Treatment of an Individual Patient and the Application of Nanomedicine in the field.

Looking back to last June, the conference had grown substantially. Almost 500 participants from 31 countries contributed to lively debates and brokerage meetings. Traditionally the General Assemblies of the European Society for Nanomedicine (520 members), the International Society for Nanomedicine (China, Japan, Australia, South America, North America, Europe, South-Korea, Canada) and a Welcome-Dinner were held the Sunday before the Summit. After the opening of the Summit the first highlight was the intervention to the topic of “The Ribosome as a Nano Factory for Cellular Protein Production and a Highly Potent Drug Target” by Prof. Dr. Ada Yonath, Nobel Laureate, and Director of the Helen and Milton A.Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular Structure and Assembly, Structural Biology Department, Weizmann Institute of Science in Tel Aviv.

136 short interventions with ample debate time, 141 poster presentations, a Foyer with 13 exhibitors and a University Village with 10 universities were the ingredients of this high-level Meeting. All contents of the Summit were based on medical problems in diseases that are still unsolved today. Fields such as cancer, cardiovascular disease (atherosclerosis), diabetes and malaria were issues of the debates as well as the fields of immunology, toxicity, and the development of nanoparticles. Disease experts from all over the world provided a comprehensive survey of the state of the art by showing novel routes in therapy and diagnosis. Of special interest were the 17 late breaking and ongoing trial-sessions in which researchers and industrial members demonstrated their novel results.

As every year, a special Highlight was the large panel on regulatory matters in Nanomedicine and Targeting, this time chaired by the Deputy Director General of the Directorate General for Research of the European Commission, Dr. Rudolf Strohmeier. The panel brought together the Regulatory Authorities from Europe, the USA, Canada, China, Japan and Australia. After this session, in which the future harmonization of definition, standards and global cooperation were stressed, many participants used the opportunity to discuss with the members of the Regulatory Authorities individual and general hurdles in the eminent important phase to bring a drug or device from bench to bedside.

The CLINAM Summit evolved into a large platform and the partnership with the European Technology Platform on Nanomedicine was again a success by jointly streamlining the field of Nanomedicine in Europe. Whereas the ETPN published a white paper to develop guidelines at the level of the European Union, the CLINAM-Foundation’s focus was the development of the conference programme in a well-balanced way, emphasizing the practical clinical level and including topics about already existing drugs, devices and applications.

Together, the ETPN and CLINAM had launched last year with further partners the EU-supported FP7 Project Nanomed2020 which proactively contributes to the development of the reflections in the white paper as well as in projects of dissemination. Those are for instance a map of all nanomedical companies and institutions worldwide or the preparation of an online portal, from the end of next January a selection of the sessions of CLINAM 6/13 can be watched online. Last but not least the Summit assisted to communicate the activities of Nanomed2020.

In order to be able to develop the emerging technology of Nanomedicine in Health to the benefit of patients and mankind and a more subtle and effective Medicine of the Future for all, the CLINAM Summit organizers have invested a big amount of the received funding in fellowships for groups of expertise in developing and Eastern countries and continents. In this sense, the CLINAM Summit is a path-breaking initiative that unites also those stakeholders, which might be in the uncomfortable situation of having limited access to such events of high novel perception and knowledge. This is why CLINAM is a landmark for the world community working in the field of Nanomedicine in Health.

Scrolling down the CLINAM website at https://www.clinam.org/conference.html. all programmes of the last 5 years can be downloaded. For those not knowing yet the contents and the speakers it is worthwhile to get familiar with the eminent amount of knowledge that is coming together in this international pool.

You will see the structure of this bridging event between research, translation, and clinical application in Nanomedicine and Targeted Medicine and its consequences for tomorrow’s medicine. You will understand why the worldwide community of leaders in nanomedicine and targeted delivery, researchers, clinicians, industrial experts, investors, policy makers, regulatory authorities, and all those investing in tomorrow’s diagnostics, therapy and individualization in medicine come to Basel for this event.

We are looking forward to next June and have found great interest from industry for a larger exhibition than until now. CLINAM/ETPN 2014 will highlight all tools, techniques, developments and research results relating to Nanomedicine, Targeted Medicine and the development of Personalized Medicine in Diagnostics, Drug Delivery, Nanomaterials, Targeting, Related Biotechnology, Nano Systems, Antibody Systems, and Simulation Systems. The CLINAM 7/2014 exhibition addresses the more than 500 expected participants of the conference as the best target public for products, services and consulting cases in a manageable platform, presenting all needs in medical targeting, nanomedicine and personalized medicine. It provides an opportunity to demonstrate and sell to global pioneers, who now are creating and expanding the research and development labs and are building up their clinical facilities.

We hope to welcome you for this meeting platform for researchers, clinicians, regulatory authorities, governments, pharma scouts, industrialists and investors shaping the future fields of medicine. We think that the CLINAM/ETPN-Summit is the place to show off your skills, tools, ideas, excellence, case studies, business proposals and your innovation drive. But it is also the best place to recruit future employees from among a wealth of skilled experts.

Best regards

Beat Löffler, MA

CEO of the European Foundation for Nanomedicine and Managing Editor of the European Journal of Nanomedicine