Escherichia coli bacteria are naturally part of the human gut microbiome. However, some strains produce a toxin that is suspected of causing colorectal cancer. A team of researchers from Berlin has now been able to confirm this assumption in vitro.
Environmental toxicologists Prof. Henner Hollert and Dr. Andreas Schiwy from Goethe-University are developing alternatives to animal use for cell culture media. They have now received CRACK-IT innovation funding from the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3R).
The Natural and Medical Sciences Institute at the University of Tübingen (NMI), based in Reutlingen, is working with academic and industrial partners to develop a test system on a chip that simulates the interaction between tumor and immune system.
Testbiotech has achieved an important success in appeal proceedings at the European Patent Office (EPO): A patent held by the Max Planck Society will be amended to delete all claims to genetically modified vertebrates.
Herbert Stiller Award is given for outstanding innovative scientific research projects that use non-animal, human-based methods to investigate into therapy of human diseases and make a significant contribution to medical contribution to medical progress.
The prize is awarded for innovative, forward-looking scientific work that contributes to the development of methods and procedures that can replace or reduce animal experiments (replacement and reduction). In accordance with the 3Rs principle, methods for improving the conditions in which laboratory animals are kept or for reducing pain, suffering or damage in experiments (refinement) can also be honored.
At the Julius Wolff Institute of Charité University Medicine Berlin, scientists are testing implant compatibility on a human "miniature bone" on a chip.
In the future, five centers in Baden-Württemberg will form the basic framework of a "3R Network Baden-Württemberg". The aim is to bundle expertise in the state in the long term and to further anchor the development and application of replacement and supplementary methods to animal experimentation.
Titled "Non-animal Methods in Science and Regulation", the European validation authority EURL ECVAM has published its latest status report.
Researchers at the ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research of the University of Bern led by Prof. Olivier Guenat, have succeeded in developing a lung model with life-size alveoli in a purely biological, stretchable membrane.