News archive

Berlin: 2011 less animal experimentation

Thursday, 07 June 2012 08:33

According to an unpublished study, the number of animals used in experiments show a definite decline of 8,000 animals in 2011.

ECVAM Search Guide available

Wednesday, 06 June 2012 08:37

The Joint Research Center (JRC) of the European Commission has published a guide for the search for alternative methods to animal experiments. The book can be downloaded for free.

Stem cells from human Chorion

Monday, 04 June 2012 08:41

Scientists at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) led by Vladimir Serikov, MD, PhD, and Frans Kuypers, PhD, report in the current Epub issue of Stem Cells Translational Medicine that placental stem cells with important therapeutic properties can be harvested in large quantities from the fetal side of human term placentas (called the chorion).

Two U.S. research groups have developed, independently from each other, a new approach to the way an autoimmune hypersensitivity reaction occurs under a particular drug influence. Advancing the development of new drugs could allow the reduction of animal tests.

As part of the third workshop of the European Project AXLR8 from June 10th to 13th at the Free University of Berlin, scientists from the United States and Europe present some important new methods.

Israeli researchers have developed a microscope that allows to look to observe the blood flow through the skin observing. Even individual cells can be looked at without marking them with a colour or a radioactive substance.

On 15th May 2012 the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) with the support of the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR), the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC), the Humane Society International (HSI) as well as the renamed  European Union Reference Laboratory for Alternatives to Animal Testing (EURL ECVAM) presented their new toxicity approach at the European Parliament in Brussels.

A research group has developed nanostructured solid substrates of titanium dioxide nanotubes that are suitable for the cultivation of adult tissue over a longer period.

In February of this year, the China State Food and Drug Administration (sFDA) presented a first draft standard of a phototoxicity assay similar that of the OECD Test Guideline (TG) 432, an in vitro phototoxicity test for public comment.

The similarities and differences in European Union (EU) and United States (US) animal welfare laws and policies for research and safety assessment are debated.