Risk Research in Biomedicine - First International Workshop of the New Jülich-Berlin Research Project

[idw]

Does mobile phone use cause cancer or not? Science has not yet been able to provide a conclusive answer. How does society deal with such uncertainties? Can research approaches used in molecular medicine fill the knowledge gaps and mitigate misgivings? A workshop to explore aspects of assessing the impacts of technology will begin on Thursday, October 12, 2006 in the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, Germany. It is the first workshop of the international and interdisciplinary research project IMBA, which was launched this past summer.





"It's paradoxical. Just because there is no clear proof of risk, people are afraid. Uncertainty creates fear," emphasize the organizers of the two-day event, Dr. Peter Wiedemannn, project coordinator of IMBA and head of the program group Humans, Environment, Technology (German acronym: MUT) at the Research Centre Jülich, Germany, and Dr. Christof Tannert, head of the working group "Bioethics and Science Communication" at MDC. Medical doctors, social scientists and ethicists from Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and the U.S. will participate in the conference.


In many cases health risks are based on statistics which often provide indications but can give no clear evidence. The aim of the new research project in Jülich and Berlin is to investigate whether biomedical research data can be utilized more extensively to assess health risks, in order to eliminate uncertainty and lack of clarity. The English acronym IMBA (Implications of Biomedicine for the Assessment of Health Risks) means precisely that, namely utilizing research results from biomedicine for the assessment of health risks. The research project also aims to stimulate a broad public discourse on risk assessment. It is funded with a three-year grant of almost a million euros from the Initiative and Networking Fund of the President of the Helmholtz Association.


Barbara Bachtler
Press and Public Affairs
Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch
Robert-Rössle-Straße 10
13125 Berlin
Germany
Phone: +49 (0) 30 94 06 - 38 96
Fax: +49 (0) 30 94 06 - 38 33
e-mail: presse@mdc-berlin.de
<http://www.mdc-berlin.de/englisch/about_the_mdc/public_relations/e_index.htm>


Further information:
Dr. Barbara Schunk, Press Office Research Centre Jülich; Phone: +49 (0) 24 61- 61-23 88;
e-mail: b.schunk@fz-juelich.de


Weitere Informationen:
- http://<http://www.bioethik-diskurs....icht.htm/view>
- <http://www.fz-juelich.de/mut/research/>

Quelle: idw