Life Sciences Limburg, the Limburg Development Company based life science network, held its first major conference at the MECC in Maastricht on November 28. The conference a significant step forward, brought together a group of 320 scientists, graduate students, life science entrepreneurs, consultants, funding agencies and government including the City of Maastricht. It drew participants from the whole broad reach of the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion with major participation by the universities of Aachen, Liège and Maastricht and also the Limburg University Center in Diepenbeek.

An introduction from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs was followed by a paper on the development of life science regions beyond borders by Pieter Lucas of Ernst and Young.

The first major topic covered was biomaterials and tissue engineering, of which there is a detailed program at the website below. Among the memorable comments was one by Dr Betty Nusgens of the University of Liège who discussed cells' need for stress and the problems that arose when it was not present, as in the weightless state in outer space.

In the course of the day, drug production by cells and stem cells were other topics covered. Professor Martin Raff of University College London gave an extremely interesting talk about stem cell research under the heading of 'hope, hype and hysteria'. The hope of many new therapies, the hype particularly in the United States where everyone wants to live forever and the ensuing hysteria covering everything from ethics to the hereafter.

Professor Raff observed on the ethical front that in vitro fertilization experimentation already destroys millions of embryo cells without an ethical hair being turned. In a detailed analysis he also pointed out that in therapies, a mix of cells is often used with the result that you don't know precisely which cell does what.

This lead to some discussions with the subsequent speaker, Dr Manfred Rüdiger of Cardion AG.

In addition to the main speakers there was a presentation by a range of local life science companies and prizes were awarded for the best poster projects.

The posters are listed below and the details of the lectures are available at the link below. At a later date we will provide a fuller résumé of the conference and a link to it elsewhere.

LIMBURG LIFE SCIENCES POSTER TOPICS

POSTER ABSTRACTS

COMPANY
FIRST

PARTICIPANT
TITLE OF ABSTRACT

University Maastricht, CARIM
J. Broers
Functional and structural changes in the nuclear scaffold causing laminopathies

Metastasis Research Laboratory
S. Califice
Study of the role of nuclear and cytoplasmic galectin-3 in prostate cancer

University Hospital Maastricht
S. Cloosen
The production of dendritic cells for cancer vaccination

University Maastricht, CARIM
S. Coort
Alterations in cardiac long-chain fatty acid metabolism and the plasmalemmal fatty acid transporter FAT/CD36 in obese Zucker rats

BIOMED, LUC
D. Dumont
Proteomics: a new approach in the study of autoimmune disorders

Forschungszentrum Jülich
C. Ferloni
A continuous packed-bed reactor for gas-solid enzymatic catalysis

University Maastricht, GROW
A. Hopman
Differential loss of chromosome 9p11 – q 12 and 9p21 in carcinoma in situ with or without concomitant malignant bladder tumors

University of Liège
F. Hubin
Support of granulopoiesis or lymphopoiesis and lymphocyte homing induction by two different murine stromal cell lines

RWTH Aachen, ITA
U. Weisemann
From granules to implants

Helmholtz Institute
M. Kuberka
Freeze-dried collagen sponges with homogenous and adjustable pore structure for biomat-projects in the field of tissue engineering

University of Liège
V. Lambert
MMP-9 contributes to choroidal neovascularization

University of Liège
D. Rusu
Primary culture of bovine enterocytes fro two intestinal segments, for the study of pathogen bacteria effects on the bovine intestinal epithelium

DSM Biotech GmbH
J. Bongaerts
Metabolic engineering to produce fine chemicals in Escherichia coli

University of Liège
L. Nguyen
Autocrine/paracrine activation of the GABA receptor inhibits the proliferation of neurogenic PSA-NCAM+ precursor cells from postnatal striatum

Forschungszentrum Jülich
T. Fischbach
Membrane-separated cocultivation of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells with stromal cell lines

University of Liège
I. Renard
Evaluation of immunotherapeutic protocol using bispecific antibody for the treatment of uterine cervix cancer

University Maastricht
E. Speel
A subset of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas exhibits integration of genomic HPV 16/18 DNA and p53 overexpression in the absence of mutations in exons 5-8

Biomedical Research Institute, LUC
P. Stinissen
T Cell vaccination in multiple sclerosis patients with autologous CSF-derived activated T cells: Results from a pilot study

Biomedical Engineering, Aachen University
C. Stöckmann
The oxygen transfer rate as the key parameter for the characterization of Hansenula polymorpha screening cultures

University Maastricht
B. v.d. Bosch
Elucidation of pathogenic genetic pathways in the hypertrophic and failing heart by microarray technology

University Maastricht
M. van Zandvoort
Fluorescent lifetime microscopy as a marker for apoptosis?

University Maastricht
S. Weppler
Random functional knockout strategy to identify the components of resistance to cytotoxic therapies

University Maastricht, CARIM
J. De Mey
Arteriogenesis

ISGS
H. de Weerd
Life sciences best in class

Chamber of Commerce and Industry Aachen-Maastricht
M. Bayer
Chamber of Commerce and Industry Aachen-Maastricht