Leading Science Journal ‘Nature’ Publishes Special Supplement On Mars’ Presence At 2014 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings

October 20, 2014 /3BL Media/ - Nature journal today published a special Mars-sponsored Outlook supplement on the Nobel Laureate Meeting on Physiology and Medicine that took place in July in Lindau, Germany.

Entitled “Fuelling the ideas factory,” the in-depth supplement includes interviews with Nobel Laureates and multi-disciplinary discussions on some of the most profound topics in medicine—including the realities of an aging global population and the battle against HIV and cancer.

The Outlook also contains a three-page feature focusing on Mars’ engagement at this year’s Lindau Meeting and its longstanding commitment to fundamental research. This includes a write-up of the Mars Science Breakfast at Lindau, where Nobel Laureate Prof. Elizabeth Blackburn and Dr. Hagen Schroeter, Mars’ director of fundamental health & nutrition research, explored how much more could be done in aging research if different industry sectors and scientific disciplines worked together more closely.

The Mars feature also includes an interview with Hagen Schroeter on the future of cocoa flavanol research where he outlines the next steps of Mars’ cocoa flavanol program, including the largest clinical research trial in the area to date with Harvard University.

The Outlook was published in Nature, the world’s most highly-cited multidisciplinary science journal, on October 16, 2014 and is available to view here.

2014 marks the eighth year of Mars, Incorporated’s partnership with Lindau—to get some background on Lindau and the role science and innovation plays in our business, check out these films:

Fuelling the ideas factory

2014 marked the eighth year of Mars, Incorporated’s partnership with the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings and Mars once again hosted an annual panel discussion with more than 100 of the world’s brightest young researchers. With this year’s meeting being dedicated to physiology and medicine, the panel explored how current approaches to aging research could be advanced by strengthening the connections between disciplines, sectors and stakeholders.

To share the discussions at Lindau with a global audience, Mars has sponsored a special Outlook supplement on the meetings in one of the world’s leading interdisciplinary science journals, Nature. The supplement discusses some of the key topics from the Meetings—from therapeutic side-effects to cures for HIV—and includes a three-page feature on Mars’ research approach. It give examples of some of the projects on which the company collaborates—rice sustainability initiatives, the African Orphan Crops Consortium and the sequencing of the cacao genome. Dr. Hagen Schroeter, Director of Fundamental Health and Nutrition Research at Mars, is also interviewed on Mars’ research program that has been running since the late 1980s to advance the scientific understanding of the nutritional and biomedical properties of cocoa flavanols.

Dr. Harold Schmitz, Chief Science Officer at Mars, said, “We partner with the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings as part of our long-standing commitment to scientific collaboration and dialogue. Supporting the Nature Outlook supplement is just another way to share Lindau’s unique multidisciplinary perspective to scientists working around the world on the next generation of scientific discovery.” 

You can find the feature on Mars here.

About Mars, Incorporated:
In 1911, Frank C. Mars made the first Mars candies in his Tacoma, Washington kitchen and established Mars’ first roots as a confectionery company. In the 1920s, Forrest E. Mars, Sr. joined his father in business and together they launched the MILKY WAY® bar. In 1932, Forrest, Sr. moved to the United Kingdom with a dream of building a business based on the objective of creating a “mutuality of benefits for all stakeholders” – this objective serves as the foundation of Mars, Incorporated today. Based in McLean, Virginia, Mars has net sales of more than $33 billion, six business segments including Petcare, Chocolate, Wrigley, Food, Drinks, Symbioscience, and more than 75,000 Associates worldwide that are putting its Principles into action to make a difference for people and the planet through its performance

Mars brands include: Petcare – PEDIGREE®, ROYAL CANIN®, WHISKAS®, BANFIELD® Pet Hospital, CESAR®, SHEBA®, DREAMIES® and NUTRO®; Chocolate – M&M’S®, SNICKERS®, DOVE®, GALAXY®, MARS®, MILKY WAY® and TWIX®; Wrigley – DOUBLEMINT®, EXTRA®, ORBIT® and 5™ chewing gums, SKITTLES® and STARBURST® candies, and ALTOIDS® AND LIFESAVERS® mints. Food – UNCLE BEN’S®, DOLMIO®, EBLY®, MASTERFOODS®, SEEDS OF CHANGE® and ROYCO®; Drinks – ALTERRA COFFEE ROASTERS™, THE BRIGHT TEA COMPANY™, KLIX® and FLAVIA®; Symbioscience – COCOAVIA® and WISDOM PANEL®.

For more information, please visit www.mars.com. Follow us: facebook.com/mars, twitter.com/marsglobal, youtube.com/mars, linkedin.com/company/mars.