News from the European Foundation for Nanomedicine (CLINAM): The 2014 CLINAM Summit

Dear Readers

The European Summit for Clinical Nanomedicine and Targeted Medicine has become one of the globally most relevant events with an exciting bouquet of the advances and possibilities of Nanomedicine on international level. The summit will provide a cutting-edge cross section highlighting the importance and progress of nanotechnology in the evolution of the medicine of tomorrow. Substantially improved diagnosis and therapy, enabled by nanomedicine, will be the corner stones for the personalized medicine of tomorrow.

From June 22 to 25 CLINAM 7/2014 in Basel offers the unique opportunity to meet internationally renowned experts from all fields of the highly interdisciplinary nanomedical community: researchers from medicine, nanotechnology, biology, physics, chemistry, biotechnology and pharmacy as well as key actors from small and medium enterprises and from large established pharmaceutical companies. For the first time CINAM will unite in its annual regulatory authorities plenary session representatives from agencies responsible for approval of drugs and devices from all continents (Europe, America, Asia, Africa, Australia and India). In this unique session, ample time is provided, allowing to direct questions to the representatives and to discuss support and obstacles in approval processes.

The CLINAM/ETPN Summit is now the international landmark in the field of Nanomedicine and Targeted Medicine. CLINAM and the ETPN are together the largest European Interest Group to develop nanomedicine for the benefit of the patient. For industry, research and policy this meeting has become an indispensable platform.

CLINAM 7/2014 will again offer an excellent platform to all participants for new contacts and network-building. The previous CLINAM conferences led numerous new European and international cooperation. Since the first Summit in 2008 eight companies were created, a large number of EU Framework applications became successful projects as, for example, Nanomded2020, DiscoGnosis, and NanoAthero, of which the latter is also introduced in this special issue on Cardiovascular Nanomedicine of the European Journal of Nanomedicine. A further 16 cooperation projects on national and international level had their cradle at one of the previous CLINAM-Summits in Basel.

This year, it is the spot, where you find more than 150 presentations from internationally recognized experts in the fields – short, precise, to the point – and ample chances to discuss the topic in depth in small groups with the speakers. CLINAM enables in the era of fastest information-flow ever to choose presentations related to the own focus field and discuss in depth what catches the interest most. The summit has become the brokerage place for international relations between the experts. The value of many clinicians at CLINAM brings the debate on Nanomedicine closer to patient’s bedside and supports the value-added debate between all stakeholders.

An excerpt is the presentation by the Nobel Laureate Prof. Dr. med. Aaron Ciechanover, Tumor and Vascular Biology Research Center, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa; the statement of Prof. Dr. Gerrit Borchard, President of the Swiss Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Vice President of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Sciences; the testimonials of successful research and translation by Prof. Dr. med. Omid Farokhzad, Associate Professor and Director of the Laboratory of Nanomedicine and Biomaterials at Harvard Medical School and founder of BIND Therapeutics, Selecta Biosciences and Blend Therapeutics in Cambridge (USA). Many further well-known experts such as Prof. Dr. Kenneth A. Dawson, Director of the Centre for BioNano Interactions in Dublin, the Nobel Laureate Prof. Dr. Gerd Binnig and David Kerr, Director Watson for Healthcare from IBM make the conference a fascinating route from highlight to highlight. Also members from the political landscape, such as The Deputy Director General, highest responsible for the field of Nanotechnology in Health of the EU. Dr. Rudoph Strohmeier and Dr. Chris Cannizzaro, Physical Science Officer of the National Nanotechnology Initiative NNI at the US Department of State in Washington, will be joining the Summit. And last but not least those members of the community that were able to translate their late breaking and ongoing trials to products for the benefit of the patients as, for example, Dr. Neil P. Desai, Principal Investigator, Aadi, Llc, Pacific Palisades, USA or Dr. Christopher R. Anzalone, President and CEO of the Arrowhead Research Corporation Pasadena, USA. Find the full programme under www.clinam.org. We welcome you to Basel and hope that this Summit will again enlarge the horizon towards Nanomedicine to the benefit of the patient for all participants.

I wish you success, interesting debates and novel contacts and cooperations