News and views

Second reading of update to EU Directive 86/609

On Wednesday 8^th September 2010, the European Parliament will have its second reading and vote on the updates to EU Directive 86/609 which concerns the use of animals in scientific procedures. The European Parliament, sitting in Strasbourg, will debate the changes to the current directive and then hold a vote to formally adopt these changes. Once the European Parliament has voted in favour of adopting the changes, this new Directive will replace the current one.

The recommendation of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, who have put forward these changes, is to accept the new document and modifications as it stands. Currently the revision of the Directive 86/609 has been approved by the European Council.

Once approved, all EU member states must adopt the practices and codes of conduct as set out in the new directive with regards to the use of animals in scientific procedures.

Further updates on the outcome of the vote and any subsequent decisions to follow.

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Developing human-related approaches to understand and cure Parkinson’s Disease

The Dr Hadwen Trust believes that effective treatments for neurodegenerative disorders are one of the most important healthcare requirements of the 21st century and that only humane approaches are valid approaches to human disease.

Download article from our Papers and Publications page

DHT to showcase 3D computer modelling at the British Science Festival

The Dr Hadwen Trust (DHT) will be present at the British Science Festival, held in and around Birmingham city centre and Aston University from the 14-19 September 2010, to highlight its work and demonstrate new cutting edge research methodologies.

The Science team will be exhibiting from the 14-16 September in the Great Hall, Aston University together with Professor Paul Furlong, a DHT grant holder. Professor Furlong is the Professor of Clinical Neuroimaging and MEG Laboratory Director at the Neurosciences Research Institute, part of the Aston Brain Centre, a world-leading centre of excellence in neuroimaging techniques.

At the festival, the DHT will have an interactive display which will show how 3D representations of molecules such as proteins can be investigated by scientists to identify their structure and function, and also model drugs and treatments.

The British Science Festival takes place each year and focuses on many aspects of science, technology and engineering, highlighting the best of British Science in all fields. Other activities at the Festival will include debates, talks, demonstrations, plays, and films that provide a wealth of opportunity to learn more about modern science.

To find out more about the DHT and the cutting edge research it funds to replace the need for animals in medical research, visit the Neuroimaging Stand, part of the Body in Health and Disease exhibition.

For further information about Professor Furlong’s DHT funded Magnetoencephalography (MEG) project click here or the pharmacokinetics of pain project click here. 

For further information on the science festival click here

For more information on the Aston Brain Centre click here

LINZ 2010

ESTIV 2010 - 16th International Congress on In Vitro Toxicology

EUSAAT 2010 - 13th Annual Congress of EUSAAT

LINZ 2010 - 16th Congress on Alternatives to Animal Testing

Date: 2 Sep 2010 - 4 Sep 2010

Location: University of Linz, Austria

The DHT is delighted to announce it is participating in the upcoming “Linz-Congress".

The Linz-Congress, or the “International Congress on Alternatives to Animal Testing” is one of the major international scientific meetings in the field of 3Rs research. This year for the first time, the Congress is a collaborative event which brings together three major 3Rs associations: ESTIV, the European Society of Toxicology in vitro, EUSAAT, the European Society for Alternatives to Animal Testing and ZET the Austrian Centre for Alternative and Complementary Methods to Animal Testing.

This international collaboration will ensure the highest standards in scientific presentations, discussions and exchange of new ideas for the benefit of alternative methods to animal experiments.

The Congress brings together the leading scientists in the 3Rs field from around the world to address topics related to alternative methods to animal experimentation. This is the biennial opportunity which allows key speakers to participate in numerous talks and provides opportunities to update participants on the latest and most advanced alternative approaches and methods.

Thanks to the efforts and determination of one of our Trustees, Dr Alison Gray, a whole session, which will take place on the second day of the meeting, has been allocated to the DHT (to see the conference program please visit : http://www.eusaat.org/index.php/2010).

This session, which will be chaired by Alison and our Science Director, Dr Sebastien Farnaud, will focus on methodologies that aim at producing alternatives to animal antibodies, which are widely used not only through the research medical field but also in treatment and diagnostics. The session will comprise a succession of presentations by three internationally renowned experts on the production of alternatives to antibodies. The three researchers have been awarded the necessary funding by the DHT to attend and present their cutting edge technologies.

A broad range of themes are covered at the Conference, of which the promotion of standardisation and harmonisation of in vitro techniques with an emphasis on good cell culture practice are a priority.

In addition, the conference is also a forum for international experts to review the latest developments in the European chemicals and cosmetics policies in context of the use of alternative methods. This will also include the latest update on the revision of the EU-directive 86/609 on the protection of animals used in experiments, for which a final draft is expected for very soon.

For more information please visit the Linz-Congress website.

Animal Testing Statistics drop by 1%

Statistics released by the Home Office (Tuesday, 27 July 2010) show that the UK’s animal experiments have dropped by 1% - remaining at just over 3.6 million experiments.

The new figures also reveal that the number of toxicology tests on animals in 2008-2009 dropped by 10%¹, which was welcomed by the Dr Hadwen Trust for Humane Research. The charity hopes that this downturn will mark the beginning of a new trend towards the increasing use of animal replacement techniques.

However, whilst there was a decrease in the number of non-human primates used, the number of new world primates used, such as marmosets and tamarins, rose by 90%². This is particularly concerning as most of these animal experiments study human diseases that do not exist in non-human primates, such as Parkinson’s Disease. Using such animal models significantly challenges the validity of these tests necessitating the development of more human relevant approaches such as the projects currently funded by the Dr Hadwen Trust.

Kailah Eglington, Chief Executive of the Dr Hadwen Trust, said: “Whilst we acknowledge that some progress has been made in reducing and refining animal experiments much still needs to be done in the area of replacement. Through the projects we fund, scientists are being given the opportunity to push the boundaries of science proving that more human relevant techniques can be implemented and developed. We hope that this year’s figures mark a turning point and that this will pave the way for a greater focus on funding replacement techniques.”

The new Government Coalition has committed to ‘end the testing of household products and work to reduce the use of animals in scientific research’. As the statistics show that in 2009 no animals were used in testing household products, the Dr Hadwen Trust hopes that the coalition will go further in its commitment to reducing the total number of animals used.

The Dr Hadwen Trust for Humane Research funds cutting-edge research at universities across the UK. The projects carried out by its grant holders aim to replace the use of animals in medical research which will lead to more relevant, high quality research. Current projects include research into breast cancer, multiple sclerosis, cystic fibrosis, skin cancer and brain infections amongst others.

Notes:

Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals – Great Britain, 2009 -

Full details of the statistics can be viewed here: http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/scientific1.html

¹ - Toxicology tests increased by 16% in 2007-2008 and decreased by 10% in 2008-2009.

² - 90% represents the total number of new world monkeys used which corresponds to an increase of 68% in the number of procedures.

All numbers on this website will be updated to 2009 figures.

Five new grants awarded

Each year, the Dr Hadwen Trust funds pioneering medical research projects which benefit humans and animals. This year we are delighted to announce that we have been able to award even more grants than last year. Your help has made it possible to award five grants in diverse areas such as epilepsy, bone disease in childhood leukaemia, brain cell imaging and abdominal pain studies.

Epilepsy

Newcastle University, 2010 – 2012

Scientific studies of epilepsy currently use substantial numbers of laboratory animals worldwide, mainly mice and rats, and involve invasive brain studies. This project aims to replace models of epilepsy which use animal brain tissue with studies of live epileptic human brain tissue.

The research group has demonstrated that routinely obtained human epileptic brain tissue (from consenting donors) can be maintained in vitro to allow them to record a particular type of epileptic electrical signal not seen in animal studies. This approach offers accessibility and the ability to manipulate human epileptic brain tissue, which is not provided by animal or human clinical studies. The research group foresees that this will lead to a replacement of animal models of epilepsy both in vitro and in vivo.

Bone Disease

Cardiff University, 2010 – 2012

Bone pathologies (e.g. osteoporosis, osteonecrosis, arthritis-related bone loss, fractures) are major health problems. Despite several new treatments which have recently been launched, the challenge remains to develop further treatments and preventative regimes.

Currently, research into bone disease uses mice, rats, rabbits, pigs, dogs and sheep. These studies use large numbers of animals and often cause severe suffering, for example, rats being suspended by their tails for days to determine effects of taking the weight off their hind legs on bone quality. The new project aims to develop two different 3D cell culture model systems to maintain human bone cells as co-cultures

in vitro. These cell culture models will be used in the study of two areas of bone disease; the cause of osteonecrosis in childhood leukaemia; and signalling between bone cell types following mechanical loading (effects of friction, pressure, twist and weight on bones). An additional value of this project is that when established, these methods will be available for use by the wider bone research community.

Brain Cell Imaging

Birmingham University, 2010 – 2013

To cope with the ever-changing demands of the environment, the brain processes information about external events and internal thought processes, by means of its coordinated activity. The challenge is to develop techniques sensitive to millisecond by millisecond changes in this activity across all regions of the brain.

The biggest hurdle to the widespread use of brain imaging for the study of electrical brain activity in correlation with hemodynamic changes (changes in blood flow), is the identification of the best way to use and combine the data.

Two types of animal experiments are dominant in this field of research: invasive recording from non-human primates, usually rhesus monkeys; and invasive and in vitro recordings from adult mice, rats and ferrets. Both these techniques require surgical procedures to apply the electrodes to the animal brains and repeated anesthetisation of the animal, all of which carry substantial mortality risks. While non-human primate experiments are usually performed repeatedly on the same animal over its lifespan, these experiments in other animals are usually terminal, i.e. the animal is killed upon completion of the brain activity recordings.

This new project will develop the theory and practice of using non-invasive brain imaging techniques to show how the brain combines external stimuli with internal thought processes. The project will demonstrate the potential of this method of working with several brain imaging techniques to understand brain function.

Nanotoxicity Testing

Nottingham University, 2010 – 2012

Drug absorption using nanoparticles requires studying how nanoparticles can enter and distribute around the body. In vitro approaches to this work are required, as current animal models are not representative of human barriers. These animal studies use both normal and genetically altered mice, rats, rabbits, dogs and sheep with drug formulations administered through forced feeding or inhalation. The movement of nanoparticles into the body is highly dependent on the composition of the layers of cells and support structures found at the surface of the lungs and gut which are different in humans and animals.

This project will create several different cultures of human lung and gut surfaces to investigate the transport mechanisms of a variety of nanoparticles across these new realistic human cell surfaces.

Abdominal Pain Studies

Barts & Queen Mary’s, University of London, 2010 – 2013

Unexplained abdominal pain is a significant healthcare burden and one in which there is a current lack of effective treatments partly because of insufficient methods to directly study how this pain occurs in nerves. One step in developing new drugs for pain is the need to show that the drug is effective in reducing responses to painful stimuli and in particular in reducing the firing of pain transmitting nerves. Currently there are over 750 experimental animal studies reported which use mice, rats, guinea pigs, and cats. Many of these experiments and observations continue for prolonged periods in live animals.

The new project will use human tissue from the bowel (removed in the course of routine surgery) to study the firing of small sensory nerves in response to standard stimuli such as pressure and noxious chemicals. The project will develop a model, which is the first of its kind in any human tissue, by performing further detailed studies that could validate its use as a replacement for animal experiments. This can also be used as a platform for new drug testing.

The project demonstrates that advances can be made with human tissue using a translational multidisciplinary approach incorporating the expertise of clinicians (surgeons, pathologists) and non-clinical research staff.