Six days, from june 29th to july 4th during which 600 young researchers, carefully selected, coming all over the world, have had the opportunity to speak and discuss with 38 Nobel Laureates on the most discussed topics of Medicine and Biology as well as of the basic and applied research.It is worth, here, to debunk the myte of the scentist with his head among clouds, having interests completely different from those of the common mortals. Following the works of Lindau we can understand that all the science transferred to youngs, derives from a deep knowledge and real interest for man, his future and that of the world. Some practical and understandable exemples:
Harald zur Hausen (Nobel prize for Medicine 2008, for having discovered the relationship of the human papilloma virus and the cancer of the cervix and for having conceived the first anticancer vaccine. He, in his lecture has talked about the infections (viral, bacterial and parasitic) that today are thought responsible of the 20% of human tumors and he presented his idea on the geographic epidemiology of the colon-rectal tumors which is more present in the countries with a high rate of consumption of beef, whereas in the countries where different meat is used like India and China it is not.
The improvement of bovine meat and its importation, after the second world war has improved the incidence of the colon-rectal tumors. Also the use of low coocked meat (shabu-shabu, corean and japanese yukhoe) showed a higher percentage of colon-rectal tumors. The available data are consistent with the idea that some bovine thermoresistent, potentially oncogenic virus (polioma, papilloma or another virus with single filament D.N.A.) may contaminate the meat preparation and bring latent colon-rectal infections. The contact with cancerogenic substances will augment the risk of tumor in synergy with these infections.
The final messsage is that the dentification of infectious, potentially oncogenic agents could have important reflexes for prevention and identification of people at risk and for the therapy of one of the most frequent human tumors.
Ada E. Jonat, Nobel prize for Chemistry 2009, for her studies on the structure and function of ribosomes, spoke about what has been done for the specie-specific control of the resistence of bacteria to antibiotics.
In fact the bacterial ribosomes should become the most important objectives of drugs having totally new targets.
Aaron Chiechanover, Nobel prize 2004 for his discoveries on proteic degradation in a period when only the synthesis of proteins was studied, has spoken of the personalised medicine and of the 4 P <Personalised,Preventive, Predictive and Partecipative> of our days.
We cannot masterize the diseases and the needs of people: every patient must be involved personally and be free of accepting or refusing the treatment. He underlined that even if today, thanks to transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics, we can quickly know the genetic profile of a person, his RNA, his proteins and their small metabolites, the knowledge of the life is a reality that must be evaluated also as regards personal, familiar, social and ethical implications.
The 64th meeting of Nobel laureates ended in the Mainau Island with a panel "The science for the well beeing of humanity" with the partecipation of Barré-Sinoussi (Nobel prize 2008 for the discovery of the HIV virus), Schmidt (Nobel prize 2011 for phisics, the accelerated expansion of the universe), Shutte, German state secretary and Mgone, director of EDCTP; the panel has been moderated by G.Carr of the british Economist. By considering the differences of the industrialised and the developing countries, the global health is a mission that requires a big synergy of the scientific and industrial worlds. There was an agreement that the basic research must be the base of the applyed science and that, despite the long delays that often requires, should be supported at all costs. In this regard, Erwin Neher said that the results of many researchs are not always evident immediately "the results of the research that Salkmann and I got the Nobel Prize in 1991 (for the technique of patch clamp for the study of ion channels in the cell) did not seem relevant for medical applicatons, at first. Now, various drugs for the treatment of diabetes, hipertension, cardiac aritmia and cystic fibrosis are based on this knowledge".
In her closing remarks, Countess Bettina Bernadotte af Wisborg, President of the council for the meeting of the Nobel Laureates of Lindau underlined that the intergenerational and intercultural dialogue is the key for the transfer of knowledge at a mondial level.
To know more visit Web:www.lindau-nobel.org.