Prof. Dr. Ludwig E. Hölzle from the Department of Environment and Animal Hygiene, University of Hohenheim, will receive funding for his project to develop an in vitro culture system for previously non-cultivable mycoplasma bacteria. This would make it possible to forgo using animals for the cultivation of these bacteria and subsequent tests using the bacteria.

Dr. Veit-Simon Eckle from the Department for Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at University Hospital Tübingen will receive funding for his plan to establish nerve-muscle cell cultures as an in vitro alternative method. The goal is to do away with the use of animals in botulinum toxin B tests.

A further recipient is Dr. Matthias Munk, researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen. He will develop a 3D video system for monitoring primates in animal experimentation facilities, including automated computer-aided evaluation of animal behaviour.

The fourth researcher to receive funding is Prof. Dr. Andreas K. Nüssler from the Siegfried Weller Institute for Casualty Medical Research at Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen. He intends to develop a new in vitro model for measuring chronic and/or systemic toxicity using human liver cells. The aim of system is to replicate the function of the human liver - including important stages in the metabolism of test substances - and facilitate evaluable results that can allow an assessment of systemic toxicity without the additional use of animals.

We congratulate all the recipients.

Source (German):
http://www.mlr.baden-wuerttemberg.de/