Researchers from France, the UK and Austria have modelled the SNARE protein complex that acts as a catalyst in the fusion of two membranes, using the processing power of the Distributed European Infrastructure for Supercomputing Applications (DEISA). They hope to open up new opportunities for pharmaceutical development.

Thomson Scientific, part of The Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC) and leading provider of information solutions to the worldwide research and business communities, today announced that it has added EMBASE® Classic to the Dialog® (File 772) and DataStar® (EM73, EMXX) platforms, providing access to more than 25 years of archived life sciences data available for the first time in electronic format.

The Belgian drug discovery company Galapagos has been awarded a total of €5.2 million in grants from the Netherlands and the European Union for several drug development projects. The aim is to create candidate drugs for conditions such as bone and joint disease, as well as novel cancer drugs.

European and Israeli researchers are working together on the development of a clinical management system for the use of drugs and drug combinations given to HIV patients, as part of an EU-funded project.

The number of applications for marketing authorisations submitted to the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) remains strong according to the half-year report presented to the Agency's Management Board by Thomas Lönngren, EMEA Executive Director, at its 4 October 2007 meeting.

Transinsight, provider of knowledge-based software solutions, has released a new online version of the well-known life-science search engine www.GoPubMed.org. This, the first semantic search engine, reduces search time by up to 90%. By sorting search results it enables scientists to answer biomedical questions in completely new way.

European consumers have been a long-neglected piece of the strategic puzzle for most marketers at health and pharmaceutical companies. Yet signs increasingly point to the degree to which European consumers are, in fact, researching health information and treatment options, and ultimately taking action as a result of those information searches.