update: 3Rs Prize

Professor Alan Fairlamb, a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow at the University of Dundee, was awarded the second annual 3Rs Prize from the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research for the development of a new, more humane technique for infecting hamsters with visceral leishmaniasis.

Professor Fairlamb, with colleague Susan Wyllie, infects hamsters with the parasite Leishmania donovani, which causes visceral leishmaniasis, a disfiguring disease prevalent in developing countries. Use of the new route of infection reduces the duration and severity of the disease in the hamster without compromising the quality of the scientific outcome.

Professor Fairlamb will use the £10 000 prize money to develop a urine test to measure the efficacy of experimental drug treatments in animals.

The first annual 3Rs Prize was also won by a Wellcome Trust-funded researcher – Siouxsie Wiles of Imperial College (see Feature: A model researcher).