In order to advnace the development of alternative methods to animal testing, the Board of Health and Consumer Protection (BGV) together with the Ministry of Science, Research and Equality (BWFG) have launched a research prize of 20,000 euros.

On the occasion of the International day for the Abolition of Animal Experiments, the alliance of animal welfare policy Berlin has organized a panel discussion at Urania Berlin with interesting personalities from academia and industry.

Under the question "Research on animals - do Germany lag behind?", Dr. Robert Landsiedel, head of the unit short-term tests at BASF SE, Prof. Dr. Roland Lauster, Head of Medical Biotechnology at the Technical University of Berlin and Dr. Mardas Daneshian, coordinator and Director of the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing Europe (CAAT Europe) spoke and debated about about important issues. The event was moderated by André Tonn, economic journalist of info radio Berlin.

InVitro+Jobs presents scientists and their innovative research in a regular feature called “Working Group – a Portrait”. We focus on newly developed methods, their evaluation and their potential for reducing and where possible replacing animal experimentation according to the 3R principles of Russel & Burch (reduce, refine, replace).

In this feature we present an institute that amongst other things researches the development of in vitro disease models (“diseases in a dish”). The models allow to study of disease developments based on patient-specific human cells instead on genetic modified animals (animal models).

A researcher group headed by Dr. Georg Damm from the Clinic of General, Visceral and Transplantation Surgery, Charité Berlin developes immunocompetent liver cell models that make it possible to examine fatty acid- and drug-induced liver damages.