Médecine sciences : M/S
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The Innovative Medicine Initiative (IMI) is a joint technology initiative jointly implemented by the European Commission and by the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). The objective of IMI, officially launched on April 30th 2008, is to identify and address the bottlenecks of the drug discovery and development process. IMI will reinforce the public-private partnerships and will be focused towards critical nodes of the drug discovery such as efficacy predictivity, safety predictivity, knowledge management and education and training. This initiative will also reinforce the attractivity of Europe for biomedical science and will then lead to the discovery of novel therapeutic strategies for the patients.
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Médecine sciences : M/S · Jun 2008
Review[Prognostic classification of breast cancer and gene expression profiling].
Clinical and pathological heterogeneity of breast cancer, partly responsible of therapeutic failures, reflects complex and combinatory molecular alterations until now poorly documented by classical investigation tools. Thorough molecular typing is crucial. ⋯ In this review, we present the main results and their potential clinical applications. We also discuss their current limits and future hopes in the therapeutic management of patients.
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Médecine sciences : M/S · Mar 2008
Review[Synchronization and genetic redundancy in circadian clocks].
A network of feedback loops constitutes the basis for circadian timing in mammals. Complex transcriptional, post-transcriptional and post-translational events are also involved in the ticking of circadian clocks, allowing them to run autonomously with their characteristic, near-24h period. Central to the molecular mechanism is the CLOCK/BMAL1 heterodimer of transcription factors. ⋯ Indeed, it appears that the Clock homolog Npas2 is able to functionally compensate for Clock genetic ablation. Furthermore, real-time imaging techniques using different clock genes knock-out lines established on a PER2 ::Luc knock-in background now demonstrate that persistent rhythmicity in the suprachiasmatic nuclei likely arises as a consequence of combined genetic redundancy and strong intercellular coupling, the latter characteristic being likely weakened in peripheral tissues such as liver or lung. The present review aims at summarizing current knowledge of the molecular basis of circadian clocks and possible differences between central and peripheral clocks in light of recent findings in Clock knock-out mice.