News archive
Report from the Linz Congress on Alternatives to Animal Testing
Monday, 10 September 2012 22:32The European Congress on Alternatives to Animal Testing traditionally takes place once a year at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria, this year being the seventeenth time.
The “Linz Congress” is hosted by EUSAAT (European Society for Alternatives to Animal Testing), for whom it was also the fourteenth annual congress. The European Teratology Society (ETS) also had a meeting on the first evening.
German Research Foundation (DFG) considers creating endowed professorships
Sunday, 09 September 2012 22:45According to an article in the German daily newspaper Hamburger Abendblatt, the German Research Foundation (DFG) has acknowledged deficits in the search for alternative methods. According to the chairman of the DFG senate commission, Prof. Gerald Heldmaier, there are considerations to close the gap by creating endowed professorships.
New nano-scales can mechanically determine the mass of single biomolecules
Friday, 31 August 2012 22:46In a premiere, an international research team led by Mehmet Hanay at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena has developed a mechanical scales with which they can even weigh single molecules such as proteins or viruses.
iGEM competition: new ideas for animal replacement methods
Thursday, 30 August 2012 22:48In this year's student competition iGEM (international Competition of Genetically Engineered Machines), eleven student teams from Germany take part. Amongst them a team from the University of Potsdam, that wants to use hamster ovary cells (CHO cells) in order to produce antibodies and a team from the University of Tübingen, that wants to use yeast cells to detect hormones in water.
Saarbrücken: Epigenome Program launched
Tuesday, 28 August 2012 22:50On 1 September, 21 German research groups launched the epigenome programme DEEP. The goal is to decrypt 70 epigenomes from human cell types.
USA: Reproducibility Initiative
Saturday, 18 August 2012 22:52The US-based company Science Exchange is offering researchers the opportunity to have their work validated by independent research institutions, with the goal of using the test results to establish a quality label.
ZEBET database: Animal-free Methods in in Acute Lung Failure
Friday, 17 August 2012 22:53Two new documents portraying animal-free alternative methods in acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress research are currently available in the AnimAlt-ZEBET data base of the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR). The techniques which are now present in the data base use primary human cells or whole tissues, respectively, and thus are also preferable in regard to translational aspects.
Baden-Württemberg's government supports development of artificial micro-organs
Monday, 13 August 2012 22:55Baden-Württemberg's Ministry of Finance and Economy is to contribute 500,000 euros in funding to the joint research project "Artificial Micro-Organs", a collaboration between the Natural and Medical Sciences Institute (NMI) and the Institute for Micro and Information Technology based in Villingen-Schwenningen.
New category: Ground-breaking Technology
Thursday, 02 August 2012 22:57The InVitroJobs website now features a new category, "Ground-breaking Technology", in which selected scientific publications are compiled in a thematic bibliography. The list includes milestones in the development of technological highlights which already can or could in the future replace animal experiments for specific topics.
Gene mutation protects against Alzheimer's disease
Wednesday, 25 July 2012 23:00Icelandic researchers led by Kari Stefansson from the pharmaceutical company deCODE genetics in Reykjavik have discovered a gene mutation in the genomes of almost 1,800 dementia-free 80- to 100-year-olds that lowers the risk of contracting the disease.
Dr. rer. nat.
Menschen für Tierrechte - Tierversuchsgegner Rheinland-Pfalz e.V.