Clinical trials with GMO-containing vaccines in Europe: Status and regulatory framework.

Recombinant technology has revolutionised the way novel vaccines are developed and manufactured. The possibility to genetically modify micro-organisms to bring immunogenic material (antigens/epitopes) to the human (or animal) immune system to provoke an immune response, provides new hope to producing prophylactic vaccines against HIV, malaria and tuberculosis and emerging diseases. Regulatory requirements associated with the development of genetically-modified organism (GMO)-containing vaccines in Europe add an additional burden to the clinical trial application procedure and to the preparation and initiation of a clinical trial of such vaccines.

Impact of gene patents on diagnostic testing: a new patent landscaping method applied to spinocerebellar ataxia.

Recent reports in Europe and the United States raise concern about the potential negative impact of gene patents on the freedom to operate of diagnosticians and on the access of patients to genetic diagnostic services. Patents, historically seen as legal instruments to trigger innovation, could cause undesired side effects in the public health domain. Clear empirical evidence on the alleged hindering effect of gene patents is still scarce.

Legal uncertainty in the area of genetic diagnostic testing.

A patent landscape analysis of 22 common genetic diagnostic tests shows substantially fewer claims on genes per se than initially suggested but raises questions of legal uncertainty as to the claims' scope.

Correlation between glucose/fructose discrepancy and hexokinase kinetic properties in different Saccharomyces cerevisiae wine yeast strains.

Grape juice contains about equal amounts of glucose and fructose, but wine strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae ferment glucose slightly faster than fructose, leading to fructose concentrations that exceed glucose concentrations in the fermenting must. A high fructose/glucose ratio may contribute to sluggish and stuck fermentations, a major problem in the global wine industry. We evaluated wine yeast strains with different glucose and fructose consumption rates to show that a lower glucose preference correlates with a higher fructose/glucose phosphorylation ratio in cell extracts and a lower K (m) for both sugars.