Many animal rights activists consider that all research carried out with animals is indefensible. This would apply especially to research with chimpanzees. I assume that chimpanzees are the closest relatives to humans and that they deserve ethical considerations which are similar to those accorded humans. Nevertheless, I believe that it is ethically justifiable to carry out certain types of experimentation with this species, as it is also with humans. I welcome the opportunity to defend this position here.

Exposure to environmental chemicals and drugs may have a negative effect on human health. An essential step towards understanding the effect of chemicals on human health is to identify all possible molecular targets of a given chemical. Recently, various network-oriented chemical pharmacology approaches have been published.

Amid news of bird flu killing 20 people in Vietnam and 12 in Thailand, Japan reported its first human infection of bird flu on December 22, 2004. The Japanese health ministry said the victim caught