Recent achievements in genomics and the increased importance of genetics in healthcare are changing the clinical landscape for both research and the treatment of disease. Helping shape this landscape, researchers have identified opportunities for synergies between biomedical and medical informatics.

Nanotechnology applications are pushing the boundaries of a number of sectors including electronics. New research in the field of microelectronics facilitates the manufacture of nanodevices at the molecular level based on the use of genetic material.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has announced a USD287 million (€227.6 million) donation to fund research into HIV vaccine development. A total of 16 grants will support large-scale collaborative projects involving more than 165 researchers in 19 countries worldwide, including researchers coming from nine European countries.

The European Commission's Information Society and Media DG has launched a call for tenders for development scenarios for a European infrastructure in high-performance computing (HPC).

The EU is massively behind the US in the allocation of public funding to cancer research, according to a European Commission-funded survey. The crux of the problem is that Member States are failing to adequately support cancer research, leaving EU funds to fill the gap rather than provide added impact. The survey also noted the growing contribution of the non-profit philanthropic sector to cancer research.

A new telemedicine platform promises to greatly improve the quality of care patients receive by giving highly qualified specialists the ability to collaborate efficiently when interpreting data from advanced medical imaging techniques.

Help scientists tackle malaria by volunteering your...computer! CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is calling on people worldwide to donate some of the spare capacity on their home and business computers in order to run Malaria.net, a computer model for malaria epidemiology. The model aims to help improve the ability of researchers to predict, and hence control, the spread of malaria in Africa.