The European Union Reference Laboratory for Alternatives to Animal Testing (EURL ECVAM) is conducting a survey on in vitro methods for estimating how the liver metabolises chemicals.

In the context of the EU project "Virtual Liver Networks", experts led by Prof. Tobias Preusser from the Fraunhofer Institute of Medical Image Computing (MEVIS) in Bremen in collaboration with the Department of Experimental Molecular Imaging at the University Hospital Aachen and the Leverkusen Bayer Technology Services have developed a program that can realistically simulate blood flow and metabolic processes in the liver.

Computer scientists and engineers led by Prof. Dr. Ing. Ulrich Rückert at Bielfeld University are currently working on models that use specialised computers to simulate aspects of the human nervous system as part of the EU project “Human Brain Project”.

Neven Mimica has been European Commissioner for Consumer Protection since Croatia joined the EU in 2013. On the occasion of the first anniversary of the final implementation of the sales and marketing ban on cosmetics tested on animals spoke publicly on the subject for the first time.

A research team from Freiburg and Magdeburg has used a 7 tesla magnetic resonance tomograph to map the boundary between the amygdala and the hippocampus regions of the brain in healthy volunteers. They found individual differences.

DFG awards Ursula M. Händel

Wednesday, 05 March 2014 20:08

The German Research Foundation DFG awarded this year’s Ursula M. Händel Animal Welfare Prize to the human biologist Prof. Dr. Thomas Korff.

Berlin: Panel Discussion at Urania

Friday, 28 February 2014 20:33

Under the motto “Research for the future - getting closer to Humankind”, “Bündnis Tierschutzpolitik Berlin”, an alliance of the animal welfare organisations “Tierschutzverein für Berlin and Umgebung Corp. e.V.” and “Bundesverband Tierschutz e.V.” will stage the third panel discussion at Urania Berlin on 26 April 2014.

U.S. tobacco giant stops animal testing

Friday, 28 February 2014 20:14

The third largest U.S. cigarette manufacturer Lorillard intends stop testing on animals. For years the company had forced rats to inhale cigarette smoke.

Scientists at the Harvard Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have used a 3D printer to produce tissue equipped with blood vessels, which could someday be used for testing pharmaceutical drugs.

More than two macrophage types

Thursday, 20 February 2014 20:43

Until now, scientists assumed there were two different types of large phagocytes: a macrophage type that encouraged inflammatory processes and a second type that suppresses inflammation. A research team from the Life & Medical Sciences Institute (LIMES) at the University of Bonn has now discovered that there are more than the two known immune cell types.