With the Oral Cavity Chip, a technique developed by TNO, the bacteria in the oral cavity can be identified.

BioPolis provides the first in-depth overview of biotechnology policy in 32 European countries

August 02, 2007 - Government policies are an important key for understanding why performance in science and commercialization in biotechnology differs so widely between countries. Countries that have research programs that focus specifically on biotechnology perform better in science than countries that have only generic research programs (i.e. those open to any area of science).

July 25, 2007 - Refining hydrogen peroxide into a very fine spray can kill bacteria and even "resistant" spores with spectacular effectiveness. This unique dosing system achieves a log reduction of 6 for bacteria and spores. The system is the result of collaboration between the Infection Control company in Eemnes and TNO. With the method patented by Infection Control being made commercially available worldwide, hospitals can use the IC-4^TM dosing system to combat the hospital bacteria MRSA easily, quickly and effectively.

Consumers have high demands as regards the fresh products that they buy.Vegetables that are too thin, crooked or broken do not make it onto the supermarket shelves. Pre-packaged vegetables are becoming increasingly popular. The waste produced by cutting these vegetables, combined with the vegetables declared unsuitable for sale, means that the amount of waste vegetables is increasing. This waste, which is in principle wholesome and high quality, ends up mainly in animal feed or on compost heaps. When Provalor B.V. General Manager Piet Nell saw the increasing demand for vegetable juice, he had some ideas.  He developed the "Provalor installation", which is a device that extracts the juice from waste vegetables. The device produces not only vegetable juice, but also a natural colouring agent. For example, you can use beet juice to give raspberry ice cream a brighter colour. However, waste vegetables are delicate, so they do not keep. With this in mind, Provalor developed mobile devices that can directly process the wholesome waste vegetables produced by vegetable-processing companies. Provalor is also researching the possibility of cold sterilising the juice, which would also save energy.  What is more, Provalor wants to join forces with Wageningen University, amongst others, in using the leftover pulp to generate bio-hydrogen, which could in turn be used to fuel cars. In this way, nothing is wasted.

• www.provalor.nl

Dutch development corporation, SNV, has been awarded the Energy Globe Award for an innovative bio-gas project in Vietnam involving equipment for fermenting animal and human excrement to create gas for cooking and lighting. Some 20.000 units out of a total 100.000 are already installed, with each unit costing 300 euro. This investment is recovered in just a few years due to savings in firewood costs and the resultant bio-gas is safer, being free from unhealthy fumes that are given-off by firewood.

Source: ANP

Leiden, The Netherlands, July, 11, 2007 - ZoBio announced today that the leading biopharmaceutical company UCB has selected ZoBio to provide ligand discovery services in the field of Fragment Based Drug Discovery.

LYON, France (AP) -- An older woman's slim chances of getting pregnant could be made worse if embryos are screened for defects before being implanted into the womb, doctors said Wednesday.

Kinesis Pharma B.V. will celebrate its tenth anniversary with a symposium entitled “The X-factor in drug development”. Sign up to Kinesis's newsletter to stay informed about upcoming events (info@kinesis-pharma.com)

Leiden, The Netherlands, May 11, 2007 - Dutch biotechnology company Crucell N.V. (Euronext, NASDAQ: CRXL, Swiss Exchange: CRX), the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation and the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI) at the University of Cape Town today announced the launch of a new Phase I clinical trial of the unique AdVac®-based tuberculosis vaccine, six months after launching a similar study in the US.  The trial will be conducted in the Boland-Overberg region of Western Cape Province in South Africa, which has one of the world's highest TB burdens.

ZoBio http://www.zobio.com has developed technology, called TINS, that alleviates the present limitations of the fragment-based approach and simultaneously provides important new advantages.