Grant winners

NATIONAL CENTRE FOR THE REPLACEMENT, REFINEMENT AND REDUCTION OF ANIMALS IN RESEARCH

The NC3Rs has funded 13 grants, worth a total of £4.5 million, at UK establishments. The research will advance knowledge and application for the replacement, refinement and reduction of animal experiments.

Award winner: Qasim Aziz

Institution: Queen Mary, University of London

Refinement of animal studies on emesis by defining human biomarkers of nausea

Award winner: Michael Emerson

Institution: Imperial College London

Reducing and replacing mouse use to model the human platelet response in vivo

Award winners: Berthold Gottgens and Aileen Smith

Institution: University of Cambridge

Transgenic embryonic stem-cell differentiation systems to replace transgenic-mouse analysis of tissue-specific regulatory elements

Award winners: Majid Hafezparast and Timothy Chevassut

Institution: University of Sussex

Development of induced pluripotent stem cells from mutant-mouse models to reduce animal use

Award winners: Susan Jobling, Edwin Routledge, Catherine Jones and Leslie Noble

Institutions: Brunel University and the University of Aberdeen

Of molluscs and men: the snail assay as an alternative to the Hershberger male rodent for the detection of androgens and anti-androgens

Award winners: Mark Lewis, Linda Greensmith and Vivek Mudera

Institutions: University of Bedfordshire and University College London

Engineering fully functional integrated skeletal muscle

Award winner: Ian Mackenzie

Institution: Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry

Development of in vitro methods for assaying cancer stem-cell responses to therapeutic challenge

Award winners: Kevin Moffat and Bruno Frenguelli

Institution: University of Warwick

Drosophila as a model for Alzheimer's disease

Award winners: Hugh Perry and Tracey Newman

Institution: University of Southampton

A compartmentalised chamber for the in vitro study and manipulation of axon degeneration

Award winners: Johnny Roughan and Paul Flecknell

Institution: Newcastle University

Assessing the welfare of mice used in cancer research

Award winner: Vasanta Subramanian

Institution: University of Bath

iPS cells from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients - towards replacing animal models for ALS

Award winners: Susan Watson, Richard Argent, Anna Grabowska, Rajendra Kumari and Snjezana Stolnik-Trenkic

Institution: University of Nottingham

The human tumour micro-environment modelled in in vitro biomatrices and applied to cancer and drug discovery

Award winners: Robin S.B. Williams and Matthew Walker

Institutions: Royal Holloway, University of London and University College London

Replacing, refining and reducing animal usage in epilepsy research using a non-sentient model

IN DETAIL

ARTS AND HUMANITIES RESEARCH COUNCIL

Award winners: Joss Hands and Jussi Parikka

Institution: Anglia Ruskin University

Value £36,542

Anglia Research Centre in Digital Culture (ARC Digital)

Focusing on recent trends in global digital communications such as Facebook and Twitter, this new research centre will provide an online resource examining network politics and culture.

The two-year project, Exploring New Configurations in Network Politics, will analyse how the faster flow of communication has led to shifts in power and how this has altered political expectations - such as in Iran, where Twitter is being used to co-ordinate demonstrations.

Dr Hands and Dr Parikka will employ an expert advisory panel to contribute to the website's design, participate in discussions and encourage the involvement of other relevant parties.