In the news
6 Sep 2008
9 July 2008
£620,000 for cystic fibrosis, childhood tumours, brain research and asthma – without animal experiments
The Dr Hadwen Trust has awarded £620,000 to replace animal experiments in cystic fibrosis, viral brain infections, brain research, asthma and inherited childhood tumours.
These new awards have been made as part of our charity’s annual programme of supporting high-quality, cutting-edge medical research that develops new ways to replace animal experiments whilst at the same time advancing human health.
These latest exciting projects now become part of our current research portfolio which includes research into chronic pain and pain relief, multiple sclerosis, skin cancer, premature childbirth, AIDS-related pneumonia, brain circuitry, brain tumour invasion, septic shock and liver infection. In total the Dr Hadwen Trust is currently funding over £2million worth of life-saving non-animal replacement research.
Donate now: At the Dr Hadwen Trust, we don’t just hope for a world without animal experiments, we’re making it happen. By funding research that saves both people and animals, we’re actively working to make a cruelty-free future for everyone. If you’d like to be a part of our mission to replace animal experiments in medical research, please make a donation today.
Spotlight on brain research
At the University of Liverpool, Dr Hadwen Trust-funded researchers will be working hard to develop and use a human blood-brain barrier model to study viral encephalitis (brain inflammation caused by a virus) to replace experiments on animals.
Viral encephalitis is one of the most important types of brain infection because it can cause severe handicap and is often fatal. Research has been conducted on macaque monkeys who are inoculated with a virus via the nose that causes the animals to suffer depression, anorexia, tremors, paralysis, coma and death. Most commonly used are mice, in which signs of infection include leg paralysis, a hunched back, ruffled fur, minimal activity, and sometimes seizures.
Normally the brain is protected from viruses in the blood by a specialised structure called the blood-brain barrier. Typically studies of how viruses disrupt the barrier are conducted in rodents. Our researchers will be using new models in which human brain cells are adapted to form a “blood brain barrier” in a plastic laboratory dish. This project will use one of the most established blood brain barrier models. It will work to improve the model to make it even closer to the real life human situation, so that it can more effectively test new treatments for viral encephalitis in the test-tube instead of in animals.
Find out more about this and our other new non-animal research projects here.
http://www.drhadwentrust.org/non-animal-research/research-projects
