Prizes which recognised three innovations, that reduce the need for animals in research, have been won by scientists from China, the UK and USA.
The 2021 winners of the Global 3Rs Awards program, promoted by AAALAC International, an EARA member were:
Rachel Tanner of University of Oxford, UK, created a way to evaluate potential tuberculosis vaccine candidates by using blood or cells samples from monkeys, thus reducing the number of animals needed in infection experiments.
Wenjie Wang of Shanghai LIDE Biotech Co., LTD., China, for the development of a rapid test (OncoVee® MiniPDX) to predict drug responses to treat cancer. The technique uses patient-derived tumors that are implanted into mice, and has led to a reduction in animals used to screen drugs compared to other techniques.
Andrew Syvyk of National Center for Therapeutics Manufacturing, USA, used a technique to create genetically modified rat models in the study of early organism development and cell behavior that will mean using fewer animals in this research.