Amsterdam is hosting the 22nd edition of the International AIDS Conference this week: AIDS 2018. More than 18,000 people (including researchers, medical specialists and policymakers) from over 180 countries have travelled to the Netherlands to attend this conference, held at the RAI Amsterdam conference and convention centre. They have excellent reason to do so.
Influenza is a disease that should not be underestimated. The World Health Organization (WHO) believes that the flu kills some 290,000 to 650,000 people globally per year. The current vaccines are not always effective, since the composition of the virus constantly changes.
Therefore, we badly need new and improved vaccines – vaccines which effectively protect against several virus variants. BPRC-affiliated reseachers have obtained some encouraging results in this respect.
This week, Belgian newspaper De Morgen featured an article by prominent Belgian scientists who responded to ‘oversimplified reporting on the sensitive subject that is animal testing’. BPRC fully agrees with this article, so we hereby present it to you.
The full article can be read here (Dutch).
In late June, a conference on working with primate models in biomedical research was held in Paris. The day before the conference, the French minister Frédérique Vidal opened a French research centre called IDMIT (which also organised this conference). This constitutes a milestone in European collaboration between biomedical research institutes.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 1.7 million people died of tuberculosis (TB) in 2016, but even so we still do not have a vaccine that provides full protection against TB. For this reason, researchers are trying frantically to improve vaccination strategies with regard to this disease. And their research is gaining momentum.
BPRC honours pioneer in transplantation medicine
On Monday, 25 June, BPRC's research building was named after one of the greatest Dutch post-WWII researchers: Jon van Rood (1926-2017). In the presence of Van Rood's widow, BPRC's Board of Directors unveiled a commemorative plaque featuring his name, photo and some words on his achievements.
In late April, French President Macron was the first world leader to visit Donald Trump at the White House. Several notable scenes were captured on camera, the most notable being the moment when Trump brushed a flake of dandruff off Macron's suit jacket. Surely this was monkey behaviour, right? But why do monkeys groom each other, anyway?
‘Mosquitoes kill more people in one day than sharks do in a century’, Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates recently stated in his blog, which was dedicated to his least favourite critters for an entire week. Mosquitoes even keep him up at night.
Rhesus macaques may be relevant to the development of anti-bacterial therapies
Bacteria can be found everywhere. They can even be found on your body, as well as inside your body. Generally, they will cause you no harm. Quite the contrary, many of them have a positive effect on your health. Some of them do not, though. For instance, bacteria that end up in your wound during surgery may cause very serious problems.
What BPRC means for science, public health and animal welfare
Today is World Day for Laboratory Animals, a day established in 1979 due to people's frustration regarding the use of animals in laboratories. On this day, this sensitive issue is given even more attention than on any other day. It is a day on which we like to shed some light on the necessity and usefulness of the research carried out at BPRC.
