THE ROUNDUP

Some six years after first conceiving the idea, Herman Goossens has finally succeeded in launching a network, known as GRACE (Genomics to combat Resistance against Antibiotics in Community-acquired LRTI in Europe). It will receive approximately $13.95 million in European Union funding through 2011.

Goossens, professor of microbiology at the University of Antwerp in Belgium, says the network will combine the research of scientists in laboratories around Europe with the medical expertise of primary care physicians. "We want to translate what we do in the laboratory and apply it to the primary-care setting," he says.

The network will include 17 academic groups in nine EU nations and a primary care network in 11 nations. Additionally, several diagnostic companies are slated to partner in the enterprise. GRACE ( www.grace-lrti.org/ ) will attempt to decrease the incidence of false diagnosis in part by developing better and easier-to-use diagnostic tools. Goossens concedes that pharmaceutical companies are not "real excited" about a project whose goal is to cut usage of antibiotics. "But diagnostic companies are very excited about GRACE," he says. Drug companies, however, may stand to benefit in the long run as well: "The goal is to preserve antibiotics as an effective treatment for the future," he points out.