The prize, worth a total of 40,000 euros, was donated to Dr. Annemarie Lang from the Medical Clinic of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology at the Charité, together with Dr. Rainald Ehrig of the Julius Wolff Institute of Biomechanics and Musculoskeletal Regeneration of the Charité and from the Zuse-Institut Berlin, as well as to Dr. Johanna Berg together with Professor Dr. Jens Kurreck from the Institute of Biotechnology, Technical University of Berlin, for its project "3D-Bio printing of organ models".

Together with their team, Dr. Lang and Dr. Ehrig have succeeded in simulating cartilage alterations both in cell culture and in parallel in a computer model. The processes simulated in this way reflect the onset of arthrosis in humans. Their research can contribute to the reduction of animal experiments.

Professor Kurreck and Dr. Berg have used 3D bioprinting methods with living human cells to create models of the lung and liver organs and infected them with influenza viruses (lung) and adenoviruses (liver) in the laboratory, respectively. Thus, the prizewinners have for the first time demonstrated that such models could replace some of the experimental animals used in infection research.

The prize is awarded every two years in cooperation with the Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (vfa) (Verband der forschenden Pharma-Unternehmen).

Source:
https://idw-online.de/de/news728882
https://www.lifepr.de/inaktiv/