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The research team from the University Skin Clinics of Freiburg and Mannheim has developed an animal-free assay system, with which chemicals can be tested for their potential to cause the so-called contact dermatitis, a special form of inflammation.

The Nobel prize for medicine goes to the Japanese Shinya Yamanaka and the British John Gurdon. They are honored for their research on stem cells.

DFG Communication Award 2013

Friday, 28 September 2012 22:16

The German Research Foundation (DFG) announces the 14th Communication Award 2013, the Scientific Award of the Founders' Association for German Science (Stifterverband für die deutsche Wissenschaft). The prize is valued at € 50,000.

In a first phase to clarify whether and to what extent the potential of omics analysis, bioinformatics and systems biology can contribute to a better understanding of toxicological processes and new, predictive in vitro test methods as substitutes for animal testing, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is calling for proposals for pilot projects on the topic of “Innovative toxicology to reduce animal testing (e:ToP)”.

The award is intended to help reduce number and suffering of animals used in scientific research and teaching as well as in manufacture of biomedical products. This year the prize was awarded to two scientists. Additionally, a further group of researchers was honored.
On the occasion of the  award ceremony  InVitroJobs interviewed the winners.

The 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.

According 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.

In 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.

In 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 22:50

On 1 September, 21 German research groups launched the epigenome programme DEEP. The goal is to decrypt 70 epigenomes from human cell types.