In his research and with his social commitment, Prof. Leist promotes the development of alternative methods to animal experiments in Safety testing of chemicals for years. Among other things, Prof. Leist is leading the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing in Europe (CAAT-Europe) founded in 2010 which end acceleration of the development of animal-free methods world wide. The Felix Wankel Animal Protection Research Prize is awarded every two years by the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) honouring outstanding, innovative and experimental scientific work that limit animal testing, improve health and housing of animals and promote animal welfare generally. The award was presented on 11 April 2013 in Munich.

"I think it's very nice that the Felix Wankel Animal Welfare Prize with the award of my research draws attention to the issue of alternative methods to animal experiments thus driving science in this field. I also observe the price as a reward for the Constance University and the Doerenkamp-Zbinden Foundation, which have made the big step to establish the Chair of In Vitro Toxicology and Biomedicine at Constance University ten years ago, a very unconventional research topics at that time to promote the development of alternative methods to animal testing", Marcel Leist said in in his acceptance spreech for the award.

Primarily Prof. Leist works in the field of reproductive toxicity, so on the issue in what extent chemicals cause damages beyond more than one generation. An example of reproductive toxicity are malformations of the now banned drug Thalidomide. Prof. Leist developes non-animal test methods in order to investigate chemicals on to their harmfulness to nervous system.

His goal is to build animal-free test "batteries" as a whole for chemical substances by using combined test systems which allow beyond individual tests a more comprehensive characterization of chemicals and enforce these non-animal methods in science and application. "About 80 percent of currently relevant chemicals are not adequately classified. In order to investigate a single substance we need more than 1,000 animals", he critizised research methods with animal tests. solely in the field of reproductive toxicity due to the European chemical regulations for Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Substances (REACH) about 21.7 million animals were expected. Prof. Leist hopes to reduce the number of animal tests and simultaneously to promote better test results by establishment of high-precise, non-animal and more human specific research methods: "So that one day use of animals will be an exception" predicts Leist.

Prof. Marcel Leist is the owner of the Doerenkamp-Zbinden Chair for In Vitro Toxicology and Biomedicine at the Constance University. Together with Prof. Dr. Dr. Thomas Hartung (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA), he founded the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT).

Contact:
Constance University
Communication und Marketing
Phone: +49 (0) 7531 / 88-3603
Mail: kum[at]uni-konstanz.de

Prof. Marcel Leist, PhD
Constance University
Doerenkamp-Zbinden foundation professorchip for In Vitro toxicology and Biomedicine
Universitätsstraße 10
78464 Konstanz
Germany
Phone: +49 (0) 7531 / 88-5037
E-Mail: Marcel.Leist[at]uni-konstanz.de
Source: Informationsdienst Wissenschaft