The effectiveness of photodynamic therapy is limited by the lack of oxygen in solid cancers. Now, EU-funded researchers have developed drug delivery nano-carriers to bring oxygen to the tumour site. This strategy could improve the effectiveness of this photodynamic therapy and help to save the lives of citizens affected by cancer.
Cancer and neglected tropical diseases impact millions of people every year. By identifying compounds that specifically target affected cells, EU-funded researchers have opened the door to potential new treatments. These medicines could save lives and benefit citizens both in Europe and around the world.
While researchers were busy developing a handheld device to rapidly detect biomarkers to guide the therapy in lung cancer, the pandemic struck. Realising their device could be adapted to test for coronavirus, researchers refocused their work. The result is the market’s smallest portable PCR device.
Science has long held that in the food chain, plants support animals. While this may be true on land, the EU-funded MixITiN project has shown that such a system isn’t applicable to our oceans. The project hopes that its findings will help to improve knowledge and thus broader education efforts on marine ecology, allowing citizens to gain a better understanding of the ocean’s great wonders.
In nature, bacteria take care of breaking down organic matter from plants and animals. This unique capacity is called anaerobic digestion and has the potential to revolutionise the way we produce energy. But it suffers from two major drawbacks, both of which the EU-funded DIET project set out to overcome.
Intrapartum antimicrobial prophylaxis (IAP), is a standard procedure used while delivering babies. According to EU-funded researchers, it may have important implications for infant health, increasing risks of obesity, diabetes, and antibiotics resistance. This finding opens the door to the development of new dietary strategies for minimising the effect of this very common medical procedure.
People born with sex characteristics that fail to fit into the typical definitions of male or female often face a lifetime of marginalisation, discrimination and social exclusion. They are also often subjected to potentially harmful surgical procedures. But new EU-funded research aims to change this by providing policymakers with fact-based information about the intersex experience.
Scientists are currently working to develop next-generation computer systems which can process information quickly and flexibly but are also energy-efficient. The EU-funded SWING project also actively contributed to this goal. Their research has produced an innovative new method that could prove key to bringing these 'super computers' from the drawing board to reality.
EU-funded researchers have applied engineering know-how to understand what controls the mechanical strength of living cells. Their findings offer new insights into the spread of cancers as well as into diseases of the heart and nervous system.
EU-funded researchers have delivered new knowledge on the artificial mass-rearing of certain species of flies. The findings are particularly timely since European legislation recently opened the door for some farmed fly species to be used as feed in the aquaculture sector.
