Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection honours Professor Dr. André Bleich
Copyright: Karin Kaiser / MHH
14.02.2023
Update: This article has been corrected in its original form. It was not Miriam Staudte, Lower Saxony's Minister for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, who awarded the prize, but Michaela Dämmrich, the State Commissioner for Animal Welfare in Lower Saxony.
Replacing, reducing or completely avoiding animal experiments in research and improving the conditions for laboratory animals - this characterises the work of Professor Dr. André Bleich, Director of the Institute for Laboratory Animal Science and the Central Animal Laboratory of the Hannover Medical School (MHH). The scientist was today awarded the "Lower Saxony Animal Welfare Prize" in the category "Alternative Methods to Animal Experiments" for the research network "R2N - Replace and Reduce from Lower Saxony", which he heads. The prize, worth 6,000 euros, was awarded for the first time by the Lower Saxony Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection by Michaela Dämmrich, the State Commissioner for Animal Welfare in Lower Saxony. The "Doctors Against Animal Experiments" association was also awarded the prize.
Research for animal protection
With the "Lower Saxony Animal Welfare Award", the Ministry wants to honour people and organisations who are particularly committed to the protection of animals in the state. The decision was made by a jury of six experts. "I am very pleased that we can honour the commitment to animals as sensitive fellow creatures in Lower Saxony in this way. Last but not least, I hope that we will also use the award to promote networking and the exchange of experts and activists in animal protection," explains Michaela Dämmrich. Fifteen working groups from seven Lower Saxony institutions are working in the R2N consortium, which was launched in 2017. The aim of the project is to develop and apply non-animal methods, particularly in basic research.
"Especially in basic research, the number of animal experiments has been constant for years, while they are decreasing in other research areas," explains Professor Bleich. Through interdisciplinary cooperation, however, various alternative models have already been developed for use in biomedical research. "These systems have also already been used, for example in COVID-19 research," says the scientist. The success of the research network is also reflected in the scientific journals. More than 50 publications have been published there since the R2N consortium was established.
SERVICE:
Information on how research is currently working to reduce, improve or completely replace animal experiments can be found on the website https://www.3r-forschung.de/.