News
European initiative to link grid computing, biomedical informatics
and nanoinformatics
29 July 2008
A consortium of seven European and Latin American partners has
launched ACTION-Grid, the first ever initiative funded by the European
Commission to analyse and link three areas: biomedical informatics, grid
computing technologies and nanoinformatics.
The objective of the project is to exchange research results and
foster collaborations in these three areas between Latin America, the
Western Balkans, North Africa and the European Union (EU). The project
will also support the European Commission in the elaboration of the
research programme in specific areas, and will lead to an EC White Paper
on the topic.
The project will run for 18 months and has a budget of around
€1 million totally funded by the
European Union as part of the EU 7th Framework Programme.
One of the main target areas of ACTION-Grid is the novel discipline
of nanoinformatics in medicine. Some examples of these applications are:
- biopharmaceuticals: the study of new drugs based on
nanoparticles and the nanosystems designed for drug delivery within
cells;
- implantable materials: for tissue repair and replacement;
- implantable devices: nanodevices for operations such as
restoring lost eye and ear functions;
- nanosurgery: nano tools can be used to perform common surgical
tasks;
- diagnostic tools: eg nano-systems for imaging that can help to
identify as soon as possible the occurrence of a disease;
- understanding basic life processes;
- modeling and simulation using informatics approaches;
- databases of nanoparticles.
For many diseases, nanomedicine promises solutions to improve
dramatically current diagnostic methods and therapies. For example, in
cancer research, nanostructures are being developed to recognise cancer
cells and destroy each cell individually. Although most prospective
analyses hope to get clinical applications of these breakthrough
technologies after many years, nanoinformatics can accelerate all the
examples above, the processes involved in this research and their
agenda.
Members of the ACTION-Grid consortium have already elaborated an
automated Resourceome of informatics methods and tools in the
NANO-BIO-MEDical areas that can be accessed by researchers and users.
Such resourceome will facilitate access to these new technologies
developed in the European Union to other professionals in Latin America,
the Western Balkans and North Africa.
Finally, ACTION-Grid will deliver a White Paper for the European
Commission, developed by a panel of international experts in the
involved areas. It will analyse the future of biomedical informatics,
grid computing and nanoinformatics in medicine and will propose steps
for future actions and research programmes.
ACTION-Grid is coordinated by the Biomedical Informatics Group at the
Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (UPM). Other participants are the
Institute of Health Carlos III, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires
(Argentina) and Universidad de Talca (Chile) from Latin America, Forth
(Greece), HealthGrid (France) and University of Zagreb Medical School
(Croatia).
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