June 2001 News

Ian Kimber and Alan Goldberg Receive Doerenkamp-Zbinden Award

June 14, 2001

The Doerenkamp-Zbinden Foundation has named two leading toxicologists as recipients of its 2001 awards. Ian Kimber and Alan Goldberg received the prestigious award for their achievements in developing and promoting the use of alternative methods.

Kimber developed the Local Lymph Node Assay (LLNA), the first alternative test method to be formally validated and accepted by U.S. regulatory agencies. The LLNA, which is used to determine the potential of chemicals to cause allergic contact dermatitis, requires far fewer animals and results in much less pain and distress than the traditional test. It also tests mice instead of guinea pigs. (See Altweb news item for more details: here.)

Kimber, currently the Research Manager at AstraZeneca's Central Toxicology Laboratory, is a world leader in the area of expression systems (genomics and proteomics) for the evaluation of toxicity, as well as in the use of in vitro systems and risk assessment. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences and a Member of the Institute of Biology. He also serves on numerous editorial boards and committees of national and international societies and institutes and has received many research grants and company awards.

Goldberg, a professor of toxicology in the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, is a leading authority on the creation, development, and validation of alternative toxicological methods. In 1981 he established the Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT), and he has served as its director ever since.

Goldberg currently is president of the In Vitro Specialty Section of the Society of Toxicology. He has received many awards, including the first Russell and Burch Award in 1991 from the Humane Society of the United States and the Society of Toxicology's Ambassador of Toxicology Award in 1998. He is the 2001 recipient of the Society of Toxicology's Enhancement of Animal Welfare Award.

The Doerenkamp-Zbinden Foundation is a German-Swiss organization established in 1987 to promote "a realistic protection of animals used for research purposes." The foundation awards up to two prizes per year to persons who have, "in a special way, contributed to the protection of animals in research or the implementation of animal alternatives."

For more information about the Doerenkamp-Zbinden Foundation and the awards, go here.