Kick-off meeting EUMITOCOMBAT

Seventeen participants from Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom met in Naarden from 12 – 14 November 2004 for the kick- off meeting of the EUMITOCOMBAT Consortium (www.eumitocombat.org). The EUMITOCOMBAT project is a Sixth Framework Programme Integrated Project granted by the European Commission and is entitled “Rational Treatment Strategies Combating Mitochondrial Oxidative Phosphorylation (OXPHOS) Disorders” (Contract No LSHM-CT-2004-503116).

The EUMITOCOMBAT consortium consists of 12 participating universities/instituteswith 21 scientific group leaders from 9 different European countries.EUMITOCOMBAT will combine mitochondrial research expertise into one, pan-European Consortium, aiming at an understanding of the underlying basic molecular mechanisms of OXPHOS disease and at the eventual development of treatments for these devastating disorders. The official starting date of the EUMITOCOMBAT project is the 1^st July 2004 and the duration shall be 48 months.

For the kick-off meeting the Consortium Council, the Consortium Board, the Project Management Team and the Scientific and Ethical Advisory Committee were invited. Main objective of the meeting was to discuss and establish a good understanding and consensus of the scientific, non-scientific and financial organisation of the project, the deliverables for the first 18 months, demonstration and dissemination activities, and ethical aspects and guidelines of the EUMITOCOMBAT project. For this purpose also the Scientific Officer of the European Commission was present.

During the meeting general announcements were made, extensive discussion about the financial (im)possibilities took place, the private domain of the website was presented, ethical issues were discussed and short presentations of the progress of the research were given.

The participants evaluated this 130^th ENMC meeting as positive and constructive.

Participants

Prof. dr. C.A. Bedate (Spain), Dr. C. Berens (Belgium), Prof. dr. R. Chadwick (United Kingdom), Dr. J.A. Enriquez (Spain), Dr. C. Gustafsson (Sweden), Dr. I. Holt (United Kingdom), Mr. W. IJsenbrandt (the Netherlands), Dr. B. Lightowlers (United Kingdom), Prof. dr. L. Palmieri (Italy), Mr. Y. Poortman (the Netherlands), Dr. A. Rötig (France), Dr. P. Rustin (France), Prof. dr. J.A.M. Smeitink (the Netherlands), Drs. H. Stroomer (the Netherlands), Dr. D.M. Turnbull (United Kingdom), Prof. dr. J. Zeman (Czech Republic), Dr. M. Zeviani (Italy).

Project Management Team EUMITOCOMBAT

University Medical Centre Nijmegen

435 - Dept. of Paediatrics

PO Box 9101

6500 HB Nijmegen

the Netherlands

Tel.: +31-24-361 91 26 / 361 94 70

Fax: +31-24-361 64 28

www.eumitocombat.org