Clinical studies for testing new medical drugs produce considerable amounts of patient samples that would be extremely valuable for researching diseases, but which have been rarely used so far. In a new research project that is a common initiative of the European Union and the pharmaceutical industry for combating resistant bacteria, scientists now want to make use of this resource.

A team of researchers led by Shaw Warren at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston has investigated differences between the immune systems of humans and mice. The researchers discovered that the gene expression of white blood cells (leukocytes) in humans after various induced inflammatory diseases differs greatly to that of various strains of mice.

In the database for alternative methods to animal experiments (AnimAlt-ZEBET), a new document is now available. It portrays progress made in the area of non-invasive MRT (magnet resonance tomography)-based procedures with special significance for cognitive neuroscience and experimental attention research.

The Human Brain Project is one of the consortiums chosen to be part of the EU flagship initiative. The project’s initiators can look forward to receiving one billion euros in funding over a period of ten years. The goal of the Human Brain Project consortium is to model the processes in the brain in as detailed a manner as possible, to understand its functions and develop new drugs.