Entirely publicly funded, CARTaGENE will be an infrastructure for populations genomics research. This resource will contribute to the development of better programs for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases. More information about the CARTaGENE project can be found at:

www.cartagene.qc.ca.

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Current job opening: Senior programmer (Java and Databases)

«The Honourable Maxime Bernier, Minister of Industry, and Mr. Raymond Bachand, Quebec Minister of Economic Development, Innovation and Export, and Minister of Tourism, along with Dr. Martin Godbout, President and CEO of Genome Canada, Mr. Paul L’Archevêque, President and CEO of Génome Québec, and Mr. Luc Vinet, Rector of the Université de Montréal, today announced $34.5 million in funding for the International Consortium known as the Public Population Project in Genomics (P3G), which includes the Quebec-based CARTaGENE project. Counting all the contributions from international partners, the total budget of the initiative could reach $64.5 million.»

«CARTaGENE will help researchers understand the genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors involved in common diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer. This increased understanding of the determinants of health and disease will, in the long term, translate into improved disease prevention, diagnostics and treatment, and contribute to a better allocation of health care resources.

It will contribute to the international harmonization of research tools and methods and governance approaches for population genomics studies. This will help to increase the statistical power and reliability of all population genomics studies, and to translate the studies into health benefits faster.»

Source:

www.cartagene.qc.ca

Read more at:

http://www.genengnews.com/news/bnitem.aspx?name=17849773

The Millenium Development Goals (MDGs)

At tbe Biovision 2007 Forum we were told to act, to educate our networks and contacts aware of the MDGs, to disseminate Biovision actions, and to take action to make the MSGs acheivable. This is laudable, but you may feel like me that we need more relevant and reliable information about the message we want to send out.

I suggest that we use this blog session to pool the relevant informations, and to share ideas about the MDGs, and how they can be acheived. Here are the proposed steps:

Cultivating awareness about the MDGs : contents and tools for communication

About the MDGs: some sources of content

Communication... very nice, but we need content. We also need to know what others are already doing so that our action does not just add to theirs, but also synergises with theirs. (If I have not convinced you, UN may! Read this.) This means we have to learn from their experience and get in tune with their message and committment. But what is being done exacly? The Millenium Development Campaign web site is informative.

The page about the 8th Goal is particularly important, because that is the goal that concerns us all as young Biovisionaires. It contains: description of the goals, information about the current situation and international aid, on-going actions that can be jointly undertaken, and various useful reports.

Other sources of contents and information:

The UN MDGs page: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

The United Nations site for the MDG Indicators and else: http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Home.aspx

Millennium Campaign: http://www.millenniumcampaign.org/site/pp.asp?c=grKVL2NLE&b=1863...

UN Millenium Project: http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/index.htm

The official MDG Campaign toolkit

A 152-page report for enabling people like us in their involvement disseminating the MDGs. It is particularly relevant to MDG # 8 as it gives us some basic information on the Millennium Development Goal Campaign:

Guiding us through planning a campaign
Providing us with some essential campaign tools
Alerting us to a few campaign skills
Inspiring us through case studies on MDG campaigns that have been run around the world
Motivating us with practical hints and tips
Linking us to UN support and to other people with similar aims.

Communicating about the current state of achievement of the MDGs throughout the world?

It is difficult to communicate this information with words only because of the differences among countries. You can refer yourself and your contacts to the UN Cyberschoolbus MDGs world map. It can be easily accessed at http://cyberschoolbus.un.org/mdgs/maps.asp?mapid=1&LangId=1. It really is a cool communication tool. You can choose 3 visualisation modes: 1) world map, 2) single country, and 3) country groupings (e.g. geo-political entities, like European Union, or official classifications, like "landlock least developing countries").

The United Cities and Local Governments (UNLG) Millennium Towns and Cities Campaign toolkit

This web-site is a very interesting source of information for action. It proposes a structured plan for communicating, networking and educating the public in general and the governments about the MDGs. Very practical and pragmatic in terms of communication strategy. This will certainly enable us to acheive our engagements toward Biovision.

Toolkit, logos and banners are available in English, French and Spanish. Exerpt: "The Campaign Toolkit has been produced by UCLG to assist local governments in implementing the Millennium Towns and Cities Campaign. The toolkit and model banner can be downloaded by clicking on the links below. The materials in the toolkit should only serve as a reference and can be changed and adapted to the needs of individual local governments. Local governments are encouraged to use the logos of the UN Millennium Campaign and UCLG in their Campaign materials."

Finding some local partnership for disseminating the MDGs message

The United Cities and Local Governments (UNLG) members

You can find lists of Cities and local governments that have committed themselves with the UNLG to work on the MDGs. They are everywhere in the world. It might be a starting point for us when looking for organisations who might be willing to hear about the Biovision2007 outcomes and to act for the achievement of the MDGs.

The page also contains a thematic searcheable list of organisations and local governements.

COMMENTS? You are very welcome!

Lise