New research conducted by a group of EU-funded researchers is shedding new light on the way blood vessels grow, overturning years of medical thought. The findings have important implications for the development of novel drugs to treat diseases such as cancer, many of which target the tumour's ability to grow its own blood vessels.

Scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden have identified a molecule which plays a key role in both the regulation of body fat and the release of insulin from the pancreas. Two papers presenting the results are published online by the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Since the 18th century, several arsenic compounds have been used as medicines, including arsenic trioxide (ATO) which is commonly prescribed in the treatment of certain types of cancer. Although they prove to be effective, no one knows how these compounds work.

With the launch of its first call for proposals, the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) got underway on 30 April. Joining forces, the European Commission and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) hope to bring Europe back to the forefront of medical innovation.

The European Commission published a pan-European survey on electronic services in healthcare (eHealth) that shows 87% of European doctors (General Practitioners) use a computer, 48% with a broadband connection. European doctors increasingly store and send patients' data such as lab reports electronically.

The Doctor's Channel and Ozmosis announced a partnership to deliver an innovative approach to online medical knowledge exchange, combining The Doctor's Channel's original video content with physician-only discussions taking place on Ozmosis.

Healthcare professionals will soon be able to access the UK's leading drug knowledge base, the Multilex Drug Data File (Multilex DDF), on the move, following the development of a new drug reference application for mobile devices. First DataBank Europe (FDBE), working in partnership with Swedish software company MedHand International AB, will be offering the ability to browse Multilex DDF via a mobile device.