The State Prize for the Promotion of Alternative Methods to Animal Experiments 2024 will be awarded to Dr. Catarina Martins-Costa, Dr. Nina Corsini and Univ.-Prof. Dr. Jürgen Knoblich.
The prize recognises outstanding scientific work whose results or objective is to avoid or reduce the use of animals in animal experiments or to improve the conditions for breeding, housing, care and use of animals in animal experiments. The work was accomplished at the IMBA – Institute of Molecular Biotechnology for developing the first lab-grown organoid model of the human corpus callosum. Their breakthrough offers new insights into neuroscience – while advancing research methods that reduce the need for animal testing.
Federal Minister Eva-Maria Holzleitner presented the 2024 Austrian State Prize for the Promotion of Alternative Methods to Animal Experiments to Catarina Martins-Costa, Nina Corsini, and Jürgen Knoblich for their publication “ARID1B controls transcriptional programs of axon projection in an organoid model of the human corpus callosum“, published in the journal Cell Stem Cell in 2024.
The federal government has set itself the goal of promoting and accelerating the development of alternative methods to animal experiments and has decided, among other things, to award an annual state prize for the promotion of alternative methods to animal experiments.
The State Prize for the Promotion of Alternative Methods to Animal Experiments is awarded annually by the Federal Ministry of Women, Science and Research on the recommendation of an expert jury for outstanding scientific work whose results or objective, in the sense of the “3R principle” (replace, reduce, refine) according to Russell and Burch (1959), is to avoid or reduce the use of animals in animal experiments or to improve the conditions for breeding, housing, care and use of animals in animal experiments. The State Prize is endowed with 10,000 Euros.
