NeuroPrion: Prevention, control and management of prion diseases

• Forschungsstelle: EU FRP
• Projektnummer: 04.0024
• Projekttitel Englisch: NeuroPrion: Prevention, control and management of prion diseases

Schlüsselwörter (Englisch)

Diagnostics; treatment; risk management; control

Alternative Projektnummern (Englisch)

EU project number: 506579

Forschungsprogramme (Englisch)

EU-programme: 6. Frame Research Programme - 1.5.2

Kurzbeschreibung (Englisch)

See abstract

Abstract (Englisch)

The BSE crisis and recent alerts related to food safety because of the possibility that BSE may be present in sheep or infectivity in muscle have underlined the necessity for a coordinated applied research effort on prion diseases at the European level to ensure protection of human and animal health and to avoid harmful economic consequences. This project aims at structuring and integrating the research effort of the main European research teams involved in prion diseases so as to coordinate their efforts. The joint programme of research activities will focus on prevention (diagnosis and decontamination), control (epidemiology, standards set up), treatment (favouring the rational design of new therapeutic strategies) and risk management (analysis and expert opinions) of TSEs (transmissible spongiform encephalopathies). In diagnostic terms, the focus will be put on rapid differential ana1ysis of different strains of prions (mainly to distinguish BSE from scrapie in small ruminants) and new ante mortem diagnostic methods (with a special interest for new markers) able to contribute to food and blood safety. In practice, the first goal will be to integrate and manage research expertise, particularly in the fields of epidemiology, pathogenesis, transmission, inactivation and therapeutics. A second goal is to define and coordinate projects oriented to generate applied deliverables having an impact on public health and agricultural monitoring. Structuring activities will cover the development of common tools and models, training and exchange of personnel. Infrastructures devoted to prion experimentation, notably in France, will be opened for access to European researchers to promote training and rapid dissemination of scientific knowledge.

Datenbankreferenzen (Englisch)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 04.0024