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NeuroPrion, European prion research network of excellence and successor association logo

NeuroPrion, European prion research network of excellence and successor association

NeuroPrion began as an EU Sixth Framework network of excellence on prion diseases, running from 1 September 2003 to 31 December 2009 with 14.4 million euro of EU money and coordinated by the French CEA. It was set up after the BSE crisis to pull together European applied prion research on diagnosis, decontamination, epidemiology, treatment and risk management, and at its peak it covered 52 partners and about 120 research teams in 20 countries. When EU funding ended it carried on as an international not-for-profit scientific association, now open to prion researchers worldwide, and its best known activity is co-organising the annual international Prion congress, held almost every year since Paris in 2004. A 2021 seminar listing says the CEA team led by Emmanuel Comoy coordinates the association. Information only, not medical advice.

Key facts

  • CORDIS records NEUROPRION as an FP6 network of excellence under the food quality and safety priority, grant 506579, from 1 September 2003 to 31 December 2009, with total cost and EU contribution both 14.4 million euro and the CEA as coordinator.
  • The final report gives 52 partners with 120 research teams in 20 countries, covering more than 90 percent of European prion teams and more than half worldwide, and more than 200 peer-reviewed papers from the network.
  • The CORDIS participant list includes, among about 40 organisations, INRA, INSERM, the University of Edinburgh, the Robert Koch Institute, the Istituto Superiore di Sanita, the Carlo Besta and Mario Negri institutes, Bellvitge hospital and IDIBELL, the Karolinska Institutet and the University of Zurich.
  • At the 2004 launch the Commission listed aims including early screening tests on easily sampled body fluids, better TSE testing and surveillance, linking national vCJD surveillance centres, shared tissue and fluid banks with standard methods, and an annual world prion congress open to researchers and the public.
  • The network was launched at Fontenay-aux-Roses on 28 May 2004, where the CEA also opened a new prion research facility, following a first international prion conference in Paris from 24 to 27 May 2004.
  • Members advised national and EU food safety agencies during the network, notably after atypical BSE and scrapie cases and BSE in goats in France and the UK, and the network helped federate patient family groups worldwide.
  • After 2009 NEUROPRION continued as an international not-for-profit scientific association; all researchers in the Canadian PrioNet network became members, and the annual meeting was to alternate between Europe and Canada.
  • The association says more than 1,000 scientists have joined since its creation and that it has co-organised the main annual Prion congress every year since 2004, with 300 to 900 attendees per meeting.
  • The Prion congress series ran every year from 2004 except 2020 and 2021; recent meetings were Goettingen (September 2022), Faro (October 2023) and Nanchang (October 2024, the association's 20th anniversary), with Prion 2025 set for Buzios, Brazil, in November 2025.
  • Prion 2024 drew nearly 300 attendees from 17 countries and was co-organised by the NeuroPrion Association with Nanchang University and China CDC.
  • A University of Cambridge seminar listing from March 2021 says Emmanuel Comoy's team at the CEA coordinates the NeuroPrion Association.

Timeline

  1. 2003NEUROPRION network of excellence starts under FP6, coordinated by the CEA.
  2. 2004First international prion conference of the network opens in Paris (to 27 May).
  3. 2004Network launched at Fontenay-aux-Roses; CEA opens a new prion research facility.
  4. 2009EU-funded network ends; NEUROPRION continues as a not-for-profit association.
  5. 2021Seminar listing names the CEA team of Emmanuel Comoy as coordinator of the association.
  6. 2022Prion 2020/22 opens in Goettingen after two COVID-19 postponements.
  7. 2023Prion 2023 opens in Faro, Portugal, with the NeuroPrion Association.
  8. 2024Prion 2024 opens in Nanchang, China, marking the association's 20th anniversary.
  9. 2025Prion 2025 scheduled to open in Buzios, Brazil.
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