For the emergency services, communicating quickly can save lives, particularly in complex incidents involving more than one service. Police, fire fighters and other first responders from around Europe could soon be communicating across seas and borders much more effectively, thanks to an innovative and secure web-based platform developed by EU-funded researchers.
Smart new technologies for characterising cellular components, collectively known as omics, offer the potential for great advances in the evaluation of an individual’s risk of developing disease. However, their use in the study of the risk of disease associated with exposure to environmental factors is still in its infancy. In particular, there is a need to test these technologies in large population studies in order to evaluate their potential for the discovery of reliable biomarkers of exposure, potential disease risks and the links between them.
Batteries and solar cells are today limited by their materials. An EU-funded team has developed a new family of hybrid nanomaterials. The results – more powerful and greener batteries, plus more efficient solar cells – are already making their way onto the market.
A major challenge facing full electric vehicles is the limited range between charges. An EU-backed project has designed a new-generation battery that can potentially power a car for up to 500 km, instead of the current 150 km, before needing to be recharged. This breakthrough could encourage more people to buy electric vehicles – good for the environment and Europe’s competitiveness.
The successful testing of a 1.5 km-long freight train by an EU-funded project shows that Europe is on the right track when it comes to cost efficient, flexible and environmentally friendly solutions to the competitive demands of the 21st century.
A range of safety and environmental issues are associated with lithium-ion batteries, including the potential risk of sudden explosions when used in electric vehicles and the disposal of toxic materials. To address these issues, the European Union (EU)-funded SOMABAT project developed innovative strategies for producing lithium-polymer batteries that are cleaner, safer and better performing than conventional lithium-ion batteries.
A more powerful mass spectrometer developed by EU-funded researchers could potentially lead to better treatments for patients with degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Proteins, which are present in every cell and tissue of the human body, play a significant role in human health. They are composed of amino acids linked together chemically, and the shorter stretches of amino acids are commonly referred to as peptides. In the body, peptides regulate the activity of many systems. Some peptides act as hormones, others as neurotransmitters, yet others as natural pain relievers.
About one in every ten newborn babies needs special care for premature birth or other complications and the treatment practices may involve painful or stressful procedures.
EU-funded researchers have developed a new potential treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, based on adult stem cells from body fat, or adipose tissue. The results of initial clinical trials are encouraging, and with a large number of patients all over the world, the benefits could be staggering.
Schizophrenia is a disabling mental illness that affects millions of Europeans. Drugs to manage the disease have mixed success - about 30 percent of patients do not respond to medication at all.
EU-funded, The HIP Trial was set to study pre-term infants and shedding light onto the best treatment for hypotension in the first 72 hours of life.
When we think of cancer we often think of rogue, villainous cells in an otherwise healthy organ. But research is increasingly showing that our bodies are complicit in the disease, providing cancer cells hiding spaces. Scientists are trying to use this knowledge to create a more accurate laboratory model of one particular type of cancer - multiple myeloma - and thus to develop better drugs to treat it.
An EU-funded project has built a 'printer' that can produce protein-type samples to advance healthcare research, particularly diagnostics and drug therapies for virulent diseases such as cancer. The results have already been commercialised, and are being used by scientists.
In many European countries more than 20 per cent of children are overweight, and that number is rising. Insufficient levels of physical activity are one important contributor to childhood obesity. One setting which holds implications for children’s participation in physical activity is organised youth sport. However, many children involved in sport choose to drop out by the time they reach adolescence.
If Europe’s chemical industry – a sector with enormous growth potential – can achieve greater water efficiency, then the benefits will not just be environmental. Making better use of natural resources will help improve the sector’s competitiveness and ensure compliance with ever more stringent rules to protect the environment.
Around 50 million EU citizens are deaf or hard of hearing. The EU-funded NANOEAR project has built up knowledge and processes that could improve their ability to hear. The results include a novel nanoparticle-based system with the potential to restore hearing, repair tissue and increase performance of cochlear implants. A nano-hearing implant could be available within 10 years.
European scientists have developed pioneering new technology that could help regenerate damaged cartilage and bone tissue and get patients back on their feet quicker than ever before.
Around one quarter of all prescribed pharmaceuticals in the developed world are derived from plants, including well-known drugs such as morphine and codeine. Harvesting plants to derive such medicines can be slow, wasteful and very expensive, yet often no synthetic alternative exists.
As society strives to produce more effective medicines, cosmetics and other industrial materials, while at the same time minimising the effect on the environment and the depletion of the earth’s resources, one major source of renewable natural materials has remained tantalisingly beyond our reach: the deepest, most inaccessible and hostile parts of the ocean. MAMBA is a pioneering European Union (EU)-funded research project, which is changing that.
