Cancer research awarded without animal experiments

Award ceremony for cancer research without animal experiments

12/08/2011

Researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have been awarded the Science Prize for Non-animal Cancer Research by the Doctors Against Animal Testing Association. By combining cell research and engineering science, the award-winning research can do without animal experiments.

Animal experiments are as widespread in the medical research as today as controversial. For the animals they mean „Pain, suffering and lasting damage“ (German Animal Welfare Act), the science promises far-reaching findings for the treatment of patients. However, the results of animal research are not only morally and ethically reprehensible according to the Association Doctors Against Animal Experiments, but also hardly transferable to humans. Therefore, the association supports animal-free research and now has a prize worth 10,000 euros. rer. nat. Irina Nazarenko and Dr.-Ing. Stefan Giselbrecht from KIT for the development of an in vitro model of cell communication between tumor and healthy tissue that allows research on cancer cells without the usual laboratory research in this field.

Research investigates communication in metastasis formation
As part of their award-winning research, the scientists from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology have investigated the communication between tumor cells and stem cells in the development of metastases in other organs. The interdisciplinary project of the so-called BioInterfaces program makes a valuable contribution to the understanding of human cancer diseases by analyzing cell communication during metastasis, according to the statement at the award ceremony. On the basis of state-of-the-art research methods, the KIT scientists also succeeded in linking cell research with engineering science, meaning that their examinations can do without animal experiments, the doctors justified the current award ceremony against animal experiments. In the research project of the KIT scientists, human cells are cultured organotypically on microstructured biochips in bioreactors to subsequently serve as a bone marrow and breast cancer model, where the processes of metastasis can be realistically traced. This not only allows the analysis of the communication processes in the formation of metastases, but could also open up new therapeutic approaches, the winners of their research report. The aim is to control the behavior of tumor and stem cells and to develop new therapies in the field of tumor nanotechnology.

Scientists completely refrain from animal experiments
For the Association Doctors Against Animal Experiments e.V., the research of KIT scientists is not only praiseworthy on the basis of the results, but also because the use of animal experiments is completely abandoned. Thus, the scientists make it clear that successful research - unlike many claims - is also possible without animal experiments. Thanks to a dedicated inheritance, the Medical Association has the financial means to support such projects, with the „Prerequisite for the eligibility of a project research entirely without animal testing or animal material“ is, emphasized the biologist and scientific assistant of the doctors against animal experiments, Silke Bitz. Decisive is that, too „the culture media for the cell cultures and the antibodies are not derived from the animal, but are produced synthetically“, Bitz continues. At the end of July, the club had already med. Maret Bauer from the Clinic for Gynecology and Obstetrics of the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein in Kiel awarded a scientific prize for the development of a three-dimensional cell culture model, which allows the study of breast cancer without any animal experiments or the use of animal materials.

Millions of animals are killed annually in the name of science
For more than 30 years, the association Doctors Against Animal Experiments has been committed to ethically acceptable, purely animal-free scientific research. Using public actions, the animal experiment opponents try to direct public interest to what they consider to be intolerable conditions in animal research. But despite the efforts of the association, the number of animal experiments in recent years has continued to increase. In April, the medical association therefore started together with the „Citizens against animal experiments e.V. - Hamburg“ as well as the „Lobby per animal Mienenbüttel - citizens' initiative against animal experiments“ in Hamburg a public action, in which the organizers also pointed out that about 2.8 million animals annually in Germany „die a cruel and pointless death in the laboratory under the guise of science“. Each year, the numbers of animal experiments continue to increase, which not only goes hand in hand with the suffering of millions of living things, but also a sign of one „misguided medicine and science“ said, said the animal experiment opponents. (Fp)

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