A universal tool to share knowledge about animal gene banks

Gene banks keep a range of biological material: gametes, embryos, DNA, somatic tissues, biological fluids. They represent a major investment for research institutions as well as for governments for the preservation of genetic diversity. The challenge is to evaluate the...

A recycling revolution for lead-acid batteries

Lead-acid batteries have been indispensable for industrial progress, but at what cost? As the world is looking towards cleaner and greener energy and recycling solutions, we ask: where will the surplus lead go? Is there a better way? The lead-acid battery...

Personalised skin tissue therapy underway

More than 50 million people suffer from skin defects every year in the world, and require surgical intervention to restore skin function and appearance. The standard of care (autografting) is ineffective and very often too scarce. Autografting is a challenge...

Maintaining infrastructure is complex management

Any maintenance activity on an infrastructure network is an optimisation wherein invested resources are related to the future condition of the structural quality. Boundaries are set by budget, nearby traffic usage; and sometimes by the limits of the available time....

Innovation and adoption: use of precision technologies on farms

The demand for meat is projected to increase from 334 million tonnes in 2015 to 498 million tonnes in 2050. This is a result of continuous increase in the global population and the rise in per capita income. Similar trends...

A mobile decision facilitator for oncology treatment

Christophe Vergne and Jean-Alexandre Kaminisky had known each other for a decade, working as competitors for many years, but it was time, they thought, to join forces whilst still striving for better performance. Thus, they created MYPL. What brought them...

Revolutionising the assessment of efficacy in drug discovery: the challenges of commercialisation

Michael Dabrowski is the CEO of Pelago Bioscience, a company which stemmed from work at the Karolinska Institute and was founded to develop the patented method of determining and quantifying drug-target interactions, called the Cellular Thermal Shift Assay (CETSA). Dabrowski...

Shaping the future: computational exploration and design of functional compounds

The Luber Group at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, works on the development of forefront computational methods at the interface of chemistry, biology, physics and materials science. Highly accurate approaches derived from quantum mechanics have been the focus of their...

The Institute for Applied Materials develops a calorimetric method to measure the internal pressure of Lithium-ion cells

The Institute for Applied Materials – Applied Materials Physics at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany, is home to Europe’s largest battery calorimeter laboratory. With six Accelerating Rate Calorimeters (ARCs, Thermal Hazard Technology) of different sizes used in combination...

Agri and food: the engine for regional change

The STRING project details how the performance of regional development instruments and programmes depends on building strong agrifood innovation systems for creating and co-operation pp The brand new pan-European STRING project improves the performance of regional development instruments and programmes in...


Special Reports