IVTIP Bulletin 11
February 2001

In this issue

EU White Paper on Chemicals: focus of this newsletter

This Newsletter is mainly devoted to the recently adopted EU White Paper on Chemicals Policy. It contains key elements of the paper, and summarize sreactions from all kinds of actors, such as CEFIC, NGOs and the European Parliament. Final adoption of the strategy would result in the use of millions of additional laboratory animals.
As for the time schedule: The next steps are that the White Paper will be submitted to the Council and the European Parliament. Stakeholders will be invited to conferences both in Brussels and in Member States whose aim is to launch the White Paper, explain its implications and discuss the way forward.
Below I review the White Paper and comments. All documents are available on the web, and can also be requested from the IVTIP Secretariat.

Furthermore in this issue:

EU White Paper on Chemicals Policy

 On February 13, 2001, the European Commission adopted a White Paper setting out the strategy for a future Community Policy for Chemicals. The main objective of the new Chemical Strategy is to ensure a high level of protection for human health and the environment, while ensuring the efficient functioning of the internal market and stimulating innovation and competitiveness in the chemical industry. Environment Commissioner Wallstrom: "It features a step-by-step approach to phase out and substitute the most dangerous substances - the ones that cause cancer, accumulate in the human body and in the environment and affect men's ability to reproduce".
Enterprise Commissoner Liikanen: "Today's decision is crucial to get good and reliable information on the basis of which we can start analysing the many chemicals on the market on which we have no knowledge of their effects on the environment and our health. At the same time the decision is important to create a proper internal market for chemical products - and thus a level playing field for our industry".
The guiding principle of the White Paper is the Precautionary Principle, and an important objective is to encourage the substitution of dangerous by less dangerous substances where suitable alternatives are available.
Key elements are:

The REACH system

The proposed new system for assessing both existing and new chemicals is known as the REACH system. It will contain the following 3 elements:
  1. registration of basic information for around 30,000 substances (all existing and new substances exceeding a production volume of 1 tonne) submitted by companies in a central database. It is estimated that around 80% of these substances would only require registration; deadline end of the year 2012.
  2. Evaluation of the registered information for all substances exceeding a production volume of 100 tonnes (around 5,000 substances) or, in case of concern, also for substances at lower tonnage; the evaluation will be carried out by authorities and include development of substance-tailored testing programmes focusing on the effects of long-term exposure; deadline: end of 2008 or end of 2005 (for substances exceeding 1,000 tonnes);
  3. authorisation of substances which are carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction (CMRs) and persistant organic pollutants (POPs).
The white paper and other information can be found at:
http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/environment/chemicals/index.htm

NGOs and industry unhappy with White Paper

Both NGOs and industry are unhappy with the EUs new strategy.

The European Environmental Bureau is disappointed that some groups of chemicals of high concern (CMRs, POPs) will only need authorisation. They are also unhappy with a lack of mechanisms to make sure that deadlines are really met.
http://www.euractiv.com/a/ndbtext/environ/eeb140201b.rtf

The Eurogroup for Animal Welfare said that the paper fails to address implications of its new chemical policy for animal welfare. The new strategy might involve several million additional animals for chemical safety assessment tests in the upcoming years.
See also their press release:
http://www.euractiv.com/a/ndbtext/environ/eurogroup140201b.rtf

The European Chemical Industry supports the political objective of the White Paper, but thinks it falls short at the practical level. CEFIC says that the increased bureaucracy will result in more testing on more chemicals using more animals and will slow down progress. The chemical industry believes that what is needed is a streamlined testing programme based on a targeted risk assessment approach that focuses first on those chemicals that give rise to the greatest cause for concern.
http://www.euractiv.com/a/ndbtext/environ/ceficchems.doc

The Greens in the European Parliament are happy neither: "they fail to see the appropriate measures to achieve this important objective (full protection of environment and health), because 70,000-100,000 chemicals will remain untested, industry will not be held liable for the information they provide, and restrictive actions against substances that are toxic, persistent or bioaccumulative will only be taken once harm has been shown".
http://www.europarl.eu.int/greens-efa/press/2001/0213b_en.htm
Contacts: Alexander de Roo, Vice Chairman of the Environment Committee; Inger Schörling, MEP and member of the Environment Committee.
For a LinksDossier, with a review of current legislation, a Chemical Policy review etc, position papers of industry, NGOs, current regulation etc, see:
http://www.euractiv.com/cgi-bin/eurb/cgint.exe/84890?714&1015=9&1014=Id_chem

Eurogroup's proposal

According to the Dangerous Substances Directive, animal tests currently required for the safety assessment of new chemicals involve the use of aporoximately:
60 rats, 40 guinea pigs, 6 rabbits and 50 fish for each chemical.
Extending this system to include all existing chemicals (currently 10,000 registered in the EU) is totally unacceptable. The White Paper states that "animal welfare considerations have to be taken into account" but does not define a clear strategy for doing so.
The Animal Welfare Group has already published a proposal for a sensible policy approach.
As a first step, all existing information should be evaluated. Furthermore, chemicals should be tested in a battery of in vitro tests to detect effects of direct relevance to risk management options. After each step, the data obtained should be evaluated and, if the results show that the chemical has specific dangerous properties, should be withdrawn from the market without further testing.
Eurogroup urges the European Commission:

Contact person: Ms Veronika Haunold, tel + 32 2 74 00 820
www.eurogroupanimalwelfare.org

Ban on sales or ban on testing?

 In 1993, the EU agreed a ban on the sale of any new cosmetics that had been tested on animals. Because of the lack of alternatives, the ban has been postponed several times. Now, the European Commission is worried that a sales ban might create problems with the World Trade Organisation. So they propose to replace the ban on sales with a ban on testing. However, the Eurogroup for Animal Welfare argues that cosmetics companies only need to move their research to countries outside the EU, and could still sell those products in the EU. They therefore argue that a complete ban on sales should be brought in from an agreed date throughout the EU, to run alongside the ban on testing. The European Parliament will be considering the proposal in the next few months.

Shift from endocrine disruptor list to actions

 On November 9, 2000, the European Commission has decided that a draft list of 553 substances identified by consultants BKH as having possible endocrine disruption activity should be replaced instead by a list of actions. The Commission has decided that it will carry out in-depth studies on just 13 out of 118 substances that are suspected of having endocrine disruption which are not yet covered by existing Community legislation. The remaining 106 substances are covered by existing legislation. The BKH prioritization exercise was considered insufficiently robust to justify regulatory action. Instead the Commission will develop methodology using the 'Weight of Evidence' approach provided by CEFIC. The decision is receiving a lot of criticism from NGOs and some member states. CEFIC is pleased with the decision.
Source: CEFIC News, autumn 2000. Contact Rob Taalman, + 32 2 676 73 28

New projects Long-range Research Initiative

 At the end of last year, nine new projects have started within the framework of the Longe Range Initiative of the Chemical Industry. Of interest to the IVTIP membership might be:
  1. Determination of the optimal physico-chemical parameters to use in a QSAR approach to predict skin permeation rate. Coordinators: Dr. mark Cronin, School of Pharmacy and Chemistry, Liverpool John Moores University
  2. Identification of structure activity relationships (SAR) alerts (combinations of functional groups) for substances with low NOELs. Coordinator: Inge Mangelsdorf, Fraunhofer Institute of Toxicology and Aerosol Research, Hannover, Germany
  3. Charaterisation of uncertainty and variation in assessment of chronic occupational exposure. Coordinator: Hinkelien van Drooge, TNO Voeding, The Netherlands.

The Netherlands: number of animal tests is increasing

 For the first time since over a decade, the number of animals just in experimemnts in the Netheralnds has increased. The increase is almost entirely due to the use of genetically modified mice (25% increase).
Source: Dutch Ministry of VWS, report 'Zo doende', 1999.

How to avoid Frankendrugs

 A decade ago, the future looked healthy for both agricultural as well as health-related biotechnology. However, today the word 'GMO' has become a liability in the agricultural biotechnology sector, and billions of dollars in profit and share value has been lost. Is such a reversal of fortune possible in health care biotechnology and what might be done about it?

Frankendrug risk for preventative drugs and vaccines

Falling out of favour will not seem likely for life saving drugs such as recombinant insulin or recombinant human growth factor. However, for many drugs that are principally preventative (as will be likely for many developed through genomics), people may eschew statistical benefits because of perceived risks, as is the case with genetically engineered foods. A similar attitude may also develop for vaccines; recently, an oral polio vaccine was recalled from the market, despite an incalculable small risk for BSE.

So, which lessons can we in health care biotechnology learn from agriculture in order to avoid the emergence of Frankendrugs? Below we summarize recommendations how to avoid a backlash against biopharmaceuticals:
  1. research and development need to take a global view (i.e. designer tomatoes do not generate the same level of public support as does rice enriched with provitamin A or iron). Similarly, post-genomic wrinkle creams may face a tough time, but a focus on malaria drugs would certainly generate strong public support. While many companies do not have specific 'global drug'development programmes, they may consider drug donation programs. An alternative is contribution to the proposed vaccine purchase fund, which assures manufacturers a market if they develop vaccines for tuberculosis, malaria or AIDS.
  2. take the public's perception of risk seriously. Protests against GMOs demonstrate the divide between expert and lay perceptions of risk and uncertainty. Public perception about risk is as much influenced by social relations and feelings of power and powerlessnes as by objective knowledge about the likelihood of large-scale accidents or individual harm.
  3. attention to social and ethical issues. It will, for example, be necessary to make it practicable to license intellectual property where that is justified both commercially and ethically.
  4. acceptance of a role for international organizations and foundations to establish forums, networks and other platforms where stakeholders can come together. WHO has begun the process by drafting guiding principles for the future of medical genetics and biotechnology.
Source: Nature Biotechnology Vol 18, Dec 2000, pp 1225

Biotechnology beneficial to 250 million

 A study by the US Biotechnology Industry Organisation (BIO) has revealed that worldwide more than 250 million people benefit from medicines and vaccines developed on the basis of biotechnology. The first biotech product dates from 20 years back. The number of people benefitting will increase substantially the coming years, with more than 350 biotech-drugs in the development pipeline.

Positive impact structural genomics

 Left and right we are bombarded with catch phrases about the potential positive impacts of structural genomics on about every aspect of our life in the third millennium. But rarely do we read about concrete examples, other than 'numerous opportunities once protein structures will have been unraveled'. Recently, Wim Hol of Washington University wrote an interesting article about the potential impact of structural genomics on biology, industry and medicine.

Impact on structural and cell biology

Structural genomics centers will create a substantial number of unsolvable X-ray data sets and NMR spectra. This could be a great opportunity for method oriented structural biologists who will be able to pick research targets from structural genomics web sites, download relevant structure factors and spectra, and sharpen their tools. These data will be a new driving force in method development, in both the structural genomics centers and the larger academic arena.

Structural genomics will also provide a tremendous boost to biochemists and molecular and cellular biologists by generating thousands of clones and expression systems. The available genes and expression constructs will become a treasure trove for specific in-depth biochemical studies in academic laboratories.

Most, if not all, initial structures emerging from high-throughput structural genomics may spawn a large number of follow up studies by academic or industrial groups that will benefit to a significant degree from the expression systems and crystallization conditions discovered already.

Many robotics systems developed by structural genomics initiative should be enthousiastically welcomed.

Unraveling in full detail the catalytic mechanisms of enzymes will surely follow from structural genomic data.

The first generation structural genomics centres will largely focus on single domain, monomeric proteins and homomultimeric assemblies. A second generation of centers will most likely also tackle heterodimers, protein-DNA and protein-RNA complexes, and maybe simple RNA molecules. This leaves for structural biologists a rewarding but challenging playing field of higher order systems, including multienzyme complexes and multimacromolecular assemblies.

Structural genomics will increase the number of simple protein structures rapidly. In particular the knowledge-based fold prediction methods are likely to benefit from the new structures.

Impact on industry

Structural genomics is likely to facilitate greatly the engineering of industrial enzymes by providing large numbers of structures of thermostable proteins.

Structural genomics is expected to have its biggest impact on medicine. Projects focused on the structural genomics of various pathogenic organisms will provide unprecedented opportunities for structure-based drug design and provide expression systems for proteins to be used in high throughput screening and combinatorial chemistry approaches. Far on the horizon is structure-based computational toxicology to check in silico if a small molecule will have any adverse effect on any human protein, nucleic acid or membrane. This application could be as far as a century away, though.

As many human protein structures as possible should be unraveled because:

  1. many wild type human proteins are drug targets in themselves;
  2. numerous mutants of human proteins are responsible for a wide range of cancers and genetic diseases, many of which are due to a lack of protein stability;
  3. interactions with human proteins must be avoided by inhibitors of proteins from pathogens.
Source: Wim Hol, Nature Structural Biology, Structural Genomics Supplement, November 2000, pp 964-966

Council support for European Research Area

 On November 16, 2000, the Research and Development Council met. Ministers discussed two key proposals tabled by the Commission: the European Research Area and a new strategy for space policy. Participants reiterated their support for Commissioner's Busquin's Research Area plan and called on him to finalise outstanding details of the proposal, including strengtheninhg of links between his institution and other organisations such as the European Science Foundation. Commissioner Busquin also briefed ministers on his plans to draw up guidelines for the upcoming 6th R&D Framework Programme (2002-2006). The chair called on the Commission to set up a scientific group to examine research in the area of human variants of mad cow diseases. Busquin said the experts would present their initial findings at the June 2001 meeting of Research ministers.

Source: European Voice, 29 November 2000

Research news

Viable biosensors of chips and cells

The creation of a viable biosensor using living cells and semiconductor devices has been thwarted by a variety of technical glitches. In theory, cells can be attached close to the 'gate' region of field effect transistors, which generate currents in the presence of small local voltage changes. However, cultured cells keep their distance both from one another and from their supportive substrate, limiting the size of the measurable voltage differential. Peter Fromherz and colleagues partially overcame this particular problem. They transfected HEK293 cells with recombinant maxi-K+ channels, and then grew these on a silicon-coated, field-effect transistor. The large current mediated by these channels creates a voltage differential sufficiently large to be detected by the transistor. Most intriguing, the ion channels became concentrated at the cell-silicon interface, suggesing that further molecular manipulations to enhance the density of channels at the 'gate' might enhance the signal-to-noise ratio of this device.

Source: Nature Biotechnology Vol 19, February 2001, pp 121-124

Neural stem cells as tumour killers

Recently, scientists at Harvard University and Layton Bioscience have found that neural stem cells can migrate throughout the brain and preferentially juxtapose themselves to metastasizing tumor cells. Experiments in rats with experimentally induced glioma's and engineered stems cells demonstrated that these stem cells can be used to deliver therapeutic molecules (the stem cells express cytosine deaminase which converts a prodrug into an active chemotherapeutic agent) to target tumour cells with impressive accuracy (in contrast to other approaches, where treatments have the tendency to migrate widely through the brain). They could also chase down migrating tumour cells elsewhere in the brain. One of the authors asserts that this type of treatment might be one of the first applications of neural stem cells for a true disease, and that clinical trials could be as close as two years away.

Source: Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA 97, 12846-12851, 2000

Bifunctional TetOff systems for mammalian cells

The tetracycline repressible (TetOff) system has found widespread applications in protein pharmaceutical production and gene therapy research as an efficient and non-toxic means of controlling transgene expression in mammalian cells. One limitation, however, is the lack of a satisfactory way of independently controlling expression of a second transgene. Recently, Fusenegger et al. developed a versatile and complementary system regulated by the streptogramin family of human oral antibiotics. They combined a bacterial promoter element (P-PTR) and a pristinamycin repressor, the Pip-protein, with various promoters and viral transactivation domains. This way they created both streptogramin-repressible and inducible systems that can work in combination with TetOff in a variety of human cell lines.

Source: Nature Biotechnology Vol 18, 2000, pp 1203-1208

Large scale population DNA bank in UK

The United Kingdom will start the large scale acquisition of DNA of at least 500,000 people suffering from a variety of diseases. The British Medical Research Council has allocated 8.4 million pound for the construction of 11 new DNA banks and for expansion of 4 existing ones. In London, the breast cancer project will start, and in Scotland all persons with colon cancer will donate DNA. The DNA samples will be compared to DNA of healthy persons. In addition, the researchers will make an inventory of lifestyle factors, such as smoking and diet.

MACs for superlarge chromosome inserts

SuperMACs have entered the biotechnology realm. Recently, mammalian artificial chromosomes (MACs) have been developed for stable introduction of large segments of genomic DNA into cells or animals. However, there has been no report showing the cloning of greater than megabase-sized genomic DNA into MACs. Equally, other artificial chromosomes, such as BACs (bacterial), PACs (phage-derived) and YACs (yeast derived) suffer from the same drawback.

Recently, a group of Japanse scientists described a system to clone defined human chromosomal regions into a stable human minichromosome vector (human artificial chromosome or HAC) in DT40 cells. The HAC carrying a 10 Mb-sized human chromosomal insert was functional in vitro and in vivo (mice).

Source: Nature Biotechnology Vol 18, October 2000, pp 1086-1090

H. pylori proteome map

The first ever protein-protein interaction map of a prokaryotic organism (H. pylori) has recently been published in Nature. The researchers validated the map as a tool for revealing biological pathways and predicting protein function by searching their database with known annotated E. coli orthologs and establishing similar biochemical functions from the resulting H. pylori proteins.

Source: Nature 409; pp 211-215, 2000

In silico prediction of cellular metabolism

Several approaches exist for the mathematical modelling of cellular metabolism and its regulation, but most of them require detailed kinetic and concentration information about enzymes and various cofactors, that is difficult to obtain. Taking a different approach, Palsson and colleagues constructed an E. coli metabolic network using a stoichiometric rather than a kinetic approach. The method relies on the application of known constraints on the integrated fucntion of reconstructed networks and does not lead to a single solution but instead provides a domain of posible solutions that represent allowable functions of the network. The authors successfully validated the in silico's approach's ability to interpret and predict cellular function.

Source: Nature Biotechnology vol 19, February 2001, pp 111-112 and 125-130

Not missing protein misfolding

Protein misfolding is associated with several human diseases, as we also heard in Paris recently. Wigley et al. presented a method for assessing the solubility and folding of expressed proteins in vivo. The assay is based on the generation of functional beta-galactosidase in E. coli by complementation of two fragments of the enzyme. The assay should be applicable to screening for drugs that promote the folding or inhibit the aggregation of disease-related proteins.

Source: Nature Biotechnology vol 19, February 2001, pp 112-113 and 131-136

Business news

Rice genome unraveled

To some it seems as if announcements of unraveled genomes occur daily now. But predictions are certainly swept away. Take the case of the rice genome. Some months ago, academics predicted that its unraveling could last another 2-3 years. On January 27, 2001, however, companies Syngenta and Myriad Genetics announced that they had sequenced the entire rice genome. This is a breakthrough, since this is the first known sequence of a commercial crop, and a monocotyledon at that.

Source: New York Times
www.nytimes.com/2001/01/27/science


IBMs Blue Gene Project for Protein Structure Modeling

Recently, IBM announced a five year, 100 million USD initiative to build a supercomputer 500 times more powerful than the fastest computers available today. The new computer, nicknamed Blue Gene, is designed to perform more than one quadrillion operations per second using more than one million processors, each equivalent to a desktop PC.
IBM intends to apply Blue Gene to the ab initio protein folding problem. Its massive computing power will be needed to develop more accurate energy fucntions and protein representations, as well as to simulate molecular dynamics on a millisecond time scale. Blue Gene will also be suited for calculations in bioinformatics where hundreds of thousands of proteins need to be processed essentially independent from each other. Computers such as Blue Gene will almost certainly be rapid enough to allow development of more accurate protein structure prediction methods, their application on the genomic scale and timely updates of the models demanded by the rapidly growing input databases of protein sequences and structures.

Source: http://www.research.ibm.com/news/detail/bluegene.html


BSE testing on a large scale

Last year, the EU dictated that all bovines older than 30 months need to be tested for BSE. As a result, reports of BSE-infected cattle are surfacing in all European countries.
For those tests, the EU approved three commercially available test systems: of Prionics, Bio-Rad and Enfer. The tests detect the prsence of PrPBSE. In the Netherlands, using the tests produced by Prionics, researchers process more than 3,000 samples daily. Costs: approximately 60 EURO/test/sample, or 180,000 EURO/day. The first 17,000 samples all tested negative.

For detailed information on these tests, BSE in general and BSE testing, see:
www.ID.Wageningen-UR.nl/BSE
www.mad-cow.org
www.prionics.com
www.bio-rad.com


..... and five new tests and standards

Scientists at the Joint Research Centre's Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM) and the European Commisson's Health and Consumer Protection DG are evaluating 5 new tests for BSE and other TSEs. They are also evaluating a sixth test to identify the differences between BSE and scrapie. The IRRM was previously involved in approving the three BSE tests currently in use. Work should be completed in late spring 2001 for the 5 tests, but the BSE/scrapie tests will take longer and is also more complex.

The IRMM is also preparing reference standards and will perform a ring trial of all laboratories in the EU using rapid tests for BSE. This is designed to evaluate the technical performance of the various laboratories carrying out surveillance tests in line with EU legislation. It will be carried out in late spring 2001.

Source: EU Joint Research centre.
http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/health_consumer/index_en.htm


ECACC and OET for baculovirus expression systems

Recently, ECACC has developed a working relationship with Oxford Expression Technologies (OET), where OET's expertise with the baculovirus expression system is complimented by ECACC's ability to develop the downstream cell culture process for scaled up production of the expression product.

Recently, OET has developed an innovative technology for making a recombinant virus that can dramatically improve the secretion or membrane targeting of expression products. ECACC and OET are planning to work together in a complimentary fashion to offer a complete service to customers wishing to exploit the baculovirus expression system.

Source: ECACC Newsletter January 2001.
For more information, please contact Prof. Linda King or Dr. David Hughes, tel + 44 1865 483 289.


News from the Commission

 Once more, here are the deadlines for proposals under FP 5 for the year 2001:

Key action 2, Infectious diseases:
All areas, October 18, 2001

Key Action 3, the Cell Factory:
Areas 3.1.2, 3.1.4, 3.2.1, 3.2.3, 3.3.1, 3.3.3: March 15, 2001
Areas 3.1.1, 3.1.3, 3.2.2, 3.2.4, 3.2.5, 3.3.1, 3.3.2, 3.3.4: October 18, 2001

Key Action 6, Ageing Population:
All areas, October 18, 2001
RTD activities of a generic nature:
Areas 12 and 13: February 28

Areas 7.2, 7.3, 8.3, 8.4, 9.3, 9.4, 10, 11, 12, 13: October 18, 2001

Key action 8.5, Genomics and Human Health: Expression of Interest, February 9; Deadline for proposals, October 18, 2001

Support for Research Infrastructures: February 9, October 18

Marie Curie individual Fellowships:
April 11, October 10, 2001

Marie Curie Host Fellowships: February 1, 2001

EC contact: mailto: alessio.vassarotti@cec.eu.int


Publications

Insight Report Biocatalysis

Novozymes A/S supported the publication of a special Nature Insight report on Biocatalysis. This report shows how far things have progressed since the early days of Liebig, Pasteur and Fischer. The report starts with a survey of the vast diversity of potentially useful enzymes, and then focuses on how enzymes can become practical tools for the organic chemist, how enzymes can develop altered or enhanced functions in nonaqueous solvents, and how new functions can be developed in modular enzymes. In vitro evolution techniques to 'breed' new, non-natural enzymes are then reviewed. The report concludes with an industry-wide perspective on the current successes and future challenges of using biocatalysts on a commercial scale.
Very readable and recommended when you're in the field. A copy of the report is available from the IVTIP Secretariat upon request.
Source: Nature Insight: Biocatalysis. Reprinted from Vol 409, no 6817, January 11, 2001

Plan your conferences in 2001

With one of our Nature subscriptions the IVTIP Secretariat received a copy of the brochure called 'Scientific Events Directory 2001'. Chockfull of events in the life sciences, with special sections on the NATO Science Programme, EMBO workshops and courses, EURESCO conferences, the conferences Jacques Monod and INSERM events, and much much more. Get your own copy from Nature (www.nature.com) or ask the IVTIP secretariat for a copy.

On the web

Industry news

A single, useful industry filing cabinet for the storage and retrieval of public information such as clinical trials, strategic partnerships, contacts in various companies, employment opportunities, and an online magazine for news and analysis. Some information requires payment, but most is free. Visit:
www.recap.com/mainweb.nsf

Another site with a lot of business news, trade-magazine style news, review artricles on technology development, event listings etc:
www.biospace.com

All about biotechnology

A massive compendium of links to other biotechnology sites that should be of interest to investigators, educators and the general public. Well developed listings of software, research tools, biosafety, patent law, career planning etc etc. Very impressive:
www.nbif.org

European federation of Biotechnology

Most of you will be familiar with the European Federation of Biotechnology. But did you know that it supports sections which are open to all European biotechnologists? Currently, there are 4 sections: Biochemical Engineering Science, Microbial Physiology, Applied Genome Research and Agri-Biotechnology. Under formation is a Section on Medical Biotechnology. Current chairman is our good friend Pierre Crooy. In addition there are numerous Working Parties on specialised topics. Visit:
http://efbweb.org

AGENDA

A number of interesting conferences and workshops is coming up. Of all the events mentioned here, the detailed programmes and registration/application forms are available from the IVTIP secretariat.

Cell & Tissue Reactor Engineering An advanced course in bioprocessing
March 19-22, 2001 Strasbourg, France

Organization: University of Minnesota. Email: acre@cems.umn.edu

40th Annual Meeting of the Society of Toxicology
March 25-29, 2001, San Francisco

Organization: SOT, Virginia, fax +1 703 438 3113

Fragrance and Allergy Conference
April 20-21, Bologna, Italy

Organization: Unipro & COLIPA

2nd International Joint Meeting
In vitro models and toxicity mechanisms
May 30-June 1, 2001, Verona, Italy

Organization: Glaxo Welcome, Verona, Italy. tel + 39 45 9218 590; fax: + 39 45 9218 174. Email: gdn9073@glaxowellcome.co.uk

Crucial issues in inhalation research & Drug research and clinical inhalation
June 6-9, 2001, Hannover, Germany

Organization: Fraunhofer Institute fur Toxicologie, Tel + 49 511 5350 151; fax: + 49 511 5350 132; email: teicke@ita.fhg.de or pavel@ita.fhg.de

17th ESACT meeting
From target to market
June 10-14, 2001, Tylösand, Sweden

Organization: ESACT Secretariat, fax + 46 8 730 06 99; email: www.esact.org

ICLAS-CCAC International Symposium on regulatory testing andanimal welfare
June 21-23, 2001, Quebec City, Canada

Organization: ICLAS and the Canadian Council on Animal Care. Tel + 1 (418) 656 41 41; fax; + 1 (418) 654 2761

10th European Congress on Biotechnology (ECB 10)
July 8-11, 2001, Madrid, Spain

Organization: EFB, Dechema

9th International congres of Toxicology
July 8-13, 2001, Brisbane, Australia

Organization: ASCEPT Secretariat, tel + 61 225 654 56

EUROTOX 2001, 39th congress of the European Societies ofToxicology
September 12-15, 2001, Istanbul, Turkey

Organization: Mumtaz Iscan, Ankara University. Tel + 90 3122 12 68 05. www.eurotx2001.org. Email: iscan@pharmacy.ankara.edu.tr

9th International Conference on human-animal interaction
Sept 13-15, 2001, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

Organization: www.iahaio.org
email: rio2001@i-et-e.fr

Cell Interactions and Cellular Complexity
Sept 30-October 3, 2001, Granada, Spain

Organization: European Tissue Culture Society.
web: www.san.gva.es/centros/lafe/ETCS/ETCS_ESP-granada-2001-00.html

4th World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the LifeSciences
August 4-6, 2002, Boston MA, USA

Organization: HSUS, ZEBET. Contact: email dpease@hsus.org