In the European Union, cancer is the leading cause of death and the overall cancer incidence is still increasing. As a result of expanding efforts to improve cancer outcome, a main paradigm change is occurring in cancer therapy towards individualized medicine. Antibody-based therapies form an integral and constantly growing part of this approach. Antibody-based therapies will strongly influence the coming decade of cancer care. The importance of immunotherapy has been highlighted by the prestigious Science journal as “breakthrough of the year 2013”, heralding the rising importance of immunotherapy. Accordingly the need for well-trained and skilled researchers in academia and industry is dramatically increasing in this field. IMMUTRAIN is a training network bringing together experts in the fields of monoclonal antibodies, dendritic cells, T-cells and immunomodulatory nucleic acids with a considerable industrial involvement. The network comprises nine academic research groups and five industrial partners in a total of seven European countries. IMMUTRAIN will actively create synergies between those sectors by forming and promoting young researchers to match the challenges of immunotherapies. Particular focus will be placed on combinatorial therapies and on the new emerging field of bispecific antibodies used to target both the tumor and the patient´s immune system. Fifteen Ph. D. students (early stage researchers, ESR) reinforced by the project leaders will investigate innovative therapeutic strategies and provide the rationale for future clinical trials. Throughout their projects, ESR will learn to integrate academic and industrial aspects and will sharpen their experimental and complementary skills in a well-designed and diversified training program.

PRISMAP - The European medical isotope programme: Production of high purity isotopes by mass separation proposes to federate a consortium of the key European intense neutron sources, isotope mass separation facilities and high-power accelerators and cyclotrons, with leading biomedical research institutes and hospitals active in the translation of the emerging radionuclides into medical diagnosis and treatment. PRISMAP will create a single-entry point for a fragmented user community distributed amongst universities, research centres, industry and hospitals, in a similar way as the National Isotope Development Center NIDC supported by the Department of Energy (DOE) has provided radionuclide sources for users in the USA. PRISMAP brings together a consortium of 23 beneficiaries from 13 countries, one European Research Laboratory and an International Organisation. It further receives support of leading associations and institutions in the field such as the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Our main goal is to provide a sustainable source of high purity grade new radionuclides for medicine, involving from the onset upcoming major European infrastructures, to provide a single-entry point for all researchers active in this field including SMEs, global pharma, nuclear centres, hospitals and universities, using standardised access procedures. The new isotope enrichment and standardisation techniques triggered in PRISMAP will expand our services and provide them to yet unreachable remote European laboratories. PRISMAP thus strives to create a paradigm shift in the early phase research on radiopharmaceuticals, targeted drugs for cancer – one of the major diseases in Europe - theranostics and personalised medicine, shaping the European isotope landmark as a gold standard to accelerate the development of the pharma industry and ultimately of a better healthcare for the improvement of our citizens’ life.