The Dr Hadwen Trust (DHT) today announced grants totalling over £720k to fund innovative and humane research into bipolar disorder, cardiovascular disease, cystic fibrosis, motor-neuron disease, rabies and schizophrenia.  

The projects, which will be taking place at seven leading universities across the UK from 2012, aim to further the understanding and treatment of a wide range of diseases while simultaneously developing methods to reduce the number of animals used in research.  

The new projects are the latest additions to a portfolio of ground-breaking medical research funded by the DHT since 1970 that does not harm any animals and has helped in the fight against diseases such as cancer, heart disease and mental health disorders.

The new projects aim to:

• Improve understanding of nerve-muscle interaction in motor-neuron disease (Cranfield University)
• Develop and test devices used in the treatment of cardiovascular disease (Dundee University)
• Develop a plant-based product to help prevent rabies (St George's, University of London)
• Improve understanding of brain activity in schizophrenia (Nottingham University)
• Improve gene therapy methods in cystic fibrosis (Imperial College, London)
• Improve understanding of the pharmacological mechanism in bipolar disorder (Royal Holloway, University of London)
• Develop humane techniques using MEG (Magnetoencephalography) scanning (Aston University)
  

Kailah Eglington, Chief Executive of the Dr Hadwen Trust, said: "We are delighted to announce funding for seven exciting new projects which will pioneer medical research, bringing benefits to both humans and animals.  All these projects offer the potential to increase understanding about devastating diseases while also helping to reduce the number of animals harmed in scientific research. 

"Over the last four decades, DHT-funded research has helped develop reliable alternatives to animal experimentation while contributing to scientific breakthroughs. We urge all scientists to think about how they can help shape a more effective and humane future for medical research by using non-animal methods in their work."

To find out more about DHT research grants click here


About The Dr Hadwen Trust

The Dr Hadwen Trust for Humane Research (DHT) is the UK's leading medical research charity funding and promoting the development of techniques and procedures to replace the use of animals in biomedical research and testing.  The DHT was established in 1970 and is supported by patrons such as Dame Judi Dench, Joanna Lumley, Brian May and David Shepherd.  Funded solely by charitable donations, the DHT has awarded grants to over 140 research projects for some of the most advanced and successful human-related techniques in diverse areas of medical research including cancer, Alzheimer's, asthma, kidney, heart and liver disease and diabetes.


Further information on the projects

Growing a single human nerve to understand nerve-muscle interaction

 

Project: Development of a Microfluidic Chamber for the In Vitro Study of Skeletal Muscle Innervation

University: Cranfield University (Bedford)

Project Lead: Dr Selim Cellek

Duration: 1 year Pilot

Associated Diseases: motor neuron diseases, spinal cord injury, peripheral nerve palsy

A chamber will be built at micro scale to allow the team to grow a single human nerve. Similar chambers have successfully been used recently to study the other functions of the nerve; but this will be the first time that a chamber will be used to study nerve-muscle interaction.

Successful completion of the project will deliver a new method to study this interaction which may lead to the development of novel therapies for those patients with motor neuron diseases, spinal cord injury and peripheral nerve palsy. Such a model would replace several animal models currently being used for research into these diseases which use mice, rats, guinea pigs, hamsters, cats, pigs, sheep and primates.

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Developing cardiovascular medical devices without using animal models

 

Project: Thiel Embalmed Human Cadaveric Alternative to Animal Models for Cardiovascular Device Testing and Training

University: University of Dundee

Project Lead: Professor John Graeme Houston

Duration:    3 years  

Associated Diseases:    Cardiovascular

This project will explore how human cadavers donated for medical research, and embalmed using the newly adopted process, could be used in place of the established animal models in developing and testing common devices used in cardiovascular disease such as endovascular stents, inferior vena caval filters and aortic stent grafts.

The long term aim of the project would be to replace animal testing in the regulatory approval stage and in cardiovascular device implantation clinical training. Currently the testing of the design, the delivery and implantation of IVC filters and aortic stent-grafts rely on extensive animal experimentation. 

These animal experiments range from rabbits to pigs, sheep and dogs, and nearly always involve animal sacrifice as part of the testing required for regulatory approval.

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Replacing animal-derived products in rabies prevention

 

Project: Replacement of animal derived products for prevention of rabies in under-developed countries

University: St George's, University of London

Project Lead: Dr Julian Ma

Duration: 3 years

Associated Diseases:  Rabies

The grant will allow the team to build on a decade of research investigating how genetically modified plants could replace horse blood, from horses who are intentionally vaccinated against rabies, in the production of rabies immunoglobulin (RIG) which is given to people bitten by animals suspected of carrying rabies to prevent the disease developing. Over the next 3 years, the team will grow RIG producing GM plants under controlled conditions using a hydroponic system, and will aim to control the quality of the RIG product made and ensure it meets the requirements for regulated pharmaceutical production.

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Understanding brain activity in schizophrenia

Project: Multi-modal imaging and its application in schizophrenia

University: University of Nottingham

Project Lead: Dr Peter Morris

Duration: 3 years

Associated Diseases: Schizophrenia

The project will build on methodological breakthroughs using non-invasive brain imaging technologies such as EEG/MEG and the UK's only Ultra High Field MR system to measure the subtle differences in electrochemical brain activity in people with schizophrenia.

Many different animal ‘models' that mimic some characteristic of schizophrenia have been developed.  Some of these models entail disruption of the development of connections in brain circuits by procedures such as rearing the animal in isolation from its mother or other cage-mates.  Other models entail administering a chemical agent, either into the abdominal cavity or directly into the brain, at an early stage in the animal's life to produce developmental disturbances similar to the disturbances of  brain development that precede schizophrenia.   

Schizophrenia is a complex disorder which cannot be authentically recreated in animal models - the new research will provide a more accurate picture of what is happening in the brains of humans affected by schizophrenia and will mean fewer animals such as mice, rats, pigs and primates are used in research.

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Validating gene therapy methods in Cystic Fibrosis

 

Project: Validation of Human Ex Vivo Models for Airway Gene Transfer

University: Imperial College, London

Project Lead: Dr Uta Griesenbach

Duration: 3 years

Associated Diseases; Cystic Fibrosis and other airway diseases

The project will use novel human lung models to test new delivery methods for lung gene therapy for cystic fibrosis.  Currently available animal models are poor predictors of how well the gene can be delivered in gene therapy and how safe it is, and so the human lung models are expected to be more accurate predictors of the efficiency and safety of the new methods, as well as reducing the number of animals such as mice and sheep required for pre-clinical research.

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Using a non-sentient model to develop treatments for Bipolar Disorder

 

Project: Development of a First-Choice Non-Sentient Model for Bipolar Disorder Molecular Pharmacology Research 

University: Royal Holloway, University of London

Project Lead: Dr Robin Williams

Duration: 3 years

Associated Diseases: Bipolar disorder

The research will develop the use of a simple social amoeba - Dictyostelium - as a first-choice non-sentient model to be used instead of mice in bipolar disorder molecular pharmacology research. The team will use this non-sentient model to screen novel drugs for increased efficacy, which would potentially lead to new, more effective and safer bipolar disorder treatments and would also mean fewer animals used in future research.

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Humane research using MEG (magnetoencephalography) scanning

 

Project: MEG scanner at the Aston Brain Centre

University: Aston University

Project Lead: Paul Furlong

Duration: 1 year

Associated Diseases: Epilepsy, Dyslexia, Autism, ADHD, sleeping disorders, metabolic disease

The research grant will help to fund the maintenance and running costs of a whole-brain paediatric MEG (magnetoencephalography) scanner, which is the only MEG scanner of its kind in Europe and one of only three in the world.

The MEG is a completely harmless, non-invasive brain imaging technique offering an alternative to animal research in the study of brain, behaviour and pharmacokinetics. It has potential to replace experiments on animals such as rodents, cats and non-human primates because it yields direct neurophysiological measurements in human subjects, with 1,000 times the temporal resolution of fMRI, and a spatial scale (a large number of measurements from the whole brain) not possible with single unit recordings.