At the Free University of Berlin two lectures will be given on the topic "Latest technologies in biomedical research - for what reason animal experiments are nessessary?".

Austrian scientists from the Institute for Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) have discovered an important molecular mechanism, which has an important function in the regular alignment of the spindle apparatus during cell division. By the switch, function and specialization of brain cells are determined and, consequently, malformations, e.g. microcephaly prevented.

The fact that there are species differences between humans and animals is a truism which now getting new food. A research team led by Michael E. Greenberg from the Harvard Medical School in Boston has found a gene in human nerve cells which belongs to the bone and muscle cells and has been switched on in primate nerve cells in the course of the evolution. The activated gene could have led to an increased brain growth in primates.

During the annual Lush Prize Conference took place on Thursday 10th November 2016, the this year´s winner of the LUSH prize were notified. 17 winners from 9 counries are able to share £300,000 of prize money.