December 2000 News

Developers of LLNA Receive SmithKline Beecham Award

December 4, 2000

Three scientists have been awarded Europe's premier laboratory animal welfare prize for 2000. Ian Kimber of Zeneca (now Syngenta) CTL, Frank Gerberick of Procter & Gamble, and David Basketter of Unilever received this year's SmithKline Beecham Laboratory Animal Welfare Prize for their joint efforts in developing and validating the murine local lymph node assay (LLNA). The LLNA provides an alternative to the guinea pig tests traditionally used to assess the potential of chemicals to cause allergic skin reactions.

The SmithKline Beecham Prize is awarded annually by the Research Defence Society (RDS) for significant contributions to improving the welfare of animals in laboratories or techniques that reduce the number of animals required. Its aim is to reward achievements in the Three Rs of alternatives-reduction, refinement, or replacement.

The LLNA, which uses mice instead of guinea pigs, serves as a prime example of both reduction and refinement-and it may help lead to replacement as well. It requires far fewer animals than the traditional tests, and it results in much less pain and distress. The new alternative is faster as well: it can be completed in a week, as opposed to the three or four weeks required by the older methods. And the data generated offer a much sounder basis for the ultimate development of non-animal models.

The LLNA underwent a lengthy process of validation to establish that the test is effective and reliable. The organizations responsible for validation in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere endorse this new assay. It was the first alternative test method to be validated and accepted for use by U.S. regulatory agencies.

Dr. Kimber accepted the prize, consisting of £2000 and an inscribed plaque, at the annual RDS meeting in London in November.