DFG honours researchers from Berlin and Tübingen for achievements in the refinement and replacement of animal experiments / Award ceremony to take place on 2 October in Berlin

Professor Dr. Christa Thöne-Reineke of FU Berlin and Professor Dr. Birgit Schittek of the University of Tübingen have been awarded this year’s Ursula M. Händel Animal Welfare Prize by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation). Veterinary scientist Thöne-Reineke is being honoured for her long-standing commitment to improving animal welfare in research, especially in recognition of her achievements in the field of refinement. Molecular medicine specialist Schittek receives the award for developing 3D skin models whose wide-ranging applications provide an alternative to animal experiments, thereby contributing to the “replacement” principle.

The two researchers will share the prize, which is endowed with a total of €80,000. The prize is awarded to researchers who improve animal welfare in research in accordance with the 3Rs principle – “replace, refine and reduce”. The award ceremony will take place on 2 October at a celebratory event marking the tenth anniversary of Tierversuche verstehen, a science-led public information initiative on animal research run by the Alliance of Science Organisations in Germany.

“Throughout every stage of her academic career, Professor Dr. Christa Thöne-Reineke has worked to promote the integration and implementation of animal welfare measures in research, teaching and institutional governance,” said Professor Dr. Brigitte Vollmar, Chair of the DFG Senate Commission on Animal Research and a member of the Ursula M. Händel Animal Welfare Prize jury: as such, the award also recognised a lifetime of achievement in the field of animal welfare spanning more than three decades. Among other things, said Vollmar, Thöne-Reineke had developed methods that made it possible to assess animal welfare and levels of burden objectively using non-invasive approaches, including AI-supported methods that record behavioural parameters and physiological responses without intervention.

In addition to her contributions to implementing the 3Rs principle in research and teaching, it was noted that Thöne-Reineke had advanced the cause of animal welfare through her work on academic committees and ethics commissions and as a scientific adviser to authorities and policymakers at both national and international level. The jury further stated that, through teaching activities and mentoring in various collaborative networks and institutions, she had made a key contribution to integrating alternative methods and animal-friendly research techniques in the training of early career researchers. 

The award is shared equally with Professor Dr. Birgit Schittek, a molecular medicine specialist whose areas of research at the University Dermatology Clinic in Tübingen include the molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in the development of skin cancer, metastasis and therapy resistance in melanoma. Schittek has developed technically sophisticated 3D skin culture models that make it possible to simulate inflammatory skin diseases as well as skin cancer. “The prize recipient actively promotes widespread use of the organotypic skin models she has developed, while providing a highly realistic and transparent assessment of their possible applications and scientific validity,” said Brigitte Vollmar. 

The skin models can be used to address a wide range of scientific questions in dermatological research, so they have considerable potential to replace animal experiments on a large scale. In the jury’s view, it is particularly commendable that Schittek shares these skin models through collaborative research, thereby making them available to other researchers. It was noted that Schittek coordinated a service project within a DFG Collaborative Research Centre/Transregio, for example, and continuously optimised the skin models to investigate a wide variety of research questions in close cooperation with colleagues. 

Christa Thöne-Reineke has been Professor of Animal Welfare, Animal Behaviour and Laboratory Animal Science at the institute of the same name at FU Berlin since 2014 and has also served as its director throughout that time. She obtained her doctorate in veterinary medicine at FU Berlin in 1997, before going on to acquire specialist veterinary qualifications in laboratory animal science and physiology in 2000. She serves on numerous committees, including the Executive Board and the Ethics Advisory Board of the Science of Intelligence (SCIoI) Cluster of Excellence at TU Berlin and the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment. She is also the deputy spokesperson of both the Einstein Center 3R (EC3R) at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Berlin-Brandenburg research platform BB3R. 

Birgit Schittek heads the Experimental Dermatology working group at the University Dermatology Clinic in Tübingen. She obtained her doctorate in biology at the University of Cologne in 1992. During her postdoctoral research, she first worked in the Tumour Immunology Group at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg before taking over leadership of the Laboratory of Molecular Dermatology in Tübingen in 1995, where she completed her post-doctoral lecturing qualification (Habilitation) in molecular medicine in 2002. Birgit Schittek has received numerous awards, including the Heinz Maurer Research Award for Dermatological Research in 2006 and the Dermato Oncology Award of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Dermatologische Forschung (ADF) in 2010.

The Ursula M. Händel Animal Welfare Prize was instigated by its eponymous benefactress. Over a period of decades, Ursula M. Händel (1915-2011) from Düsseldorf engaged in a range of different activities to campaign for animal welfare. Among other things, she founded the Bonn Working Group for Animal Protection Law and was involved in the amendment of the Animal Protection Act. Händel provided the DFG with funds for the Animal Welfare Prize based on her deep commitment to animal welfare in science and research. The highest-endowed research prize of its kind in Germany, it is awarded every two years.