welcome to our internet platform, a ressource for information about scientific research which promotes the replacement of the use of animals.
The development of animal-free research methods has advanced rapidly in recent years. This website was created to support this increasingly important branch of research.
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Current:
Working Group – a Portrait:
Cultex Laboratories GmbH
InvitroJobs presents scientists and their innovative research in a regular feature called “Working Group – a Portrait”. The focus is set on newly developed methods, their evaluation and their potential for reducing and, where possible, replacing animal experimentation according to the “three Rs” of Russell & Burch (reduce, refine, replace).
In the fourth issue we present the company Cultex Laboratory GmbH Hannover. The company is concerned with in vitro methods investigating the effects of aerosols on human lung cells. The Cultex Laboratories GmbH was founded by the biologist Prof. Dr. Michaela Aufderheide and the medical scientist and pathologist Prof. Dr. med. Drs. h.c. Ulrich Mohr in 2007. Before that both worked as department leader resp. director at the Institute of Experimental Pathology of the Medical University Hannover and in the following at the Fraunhofer Institute of Toxicology and Experimental Medicine Hannover (formerly Fraunhofer Institute of Toxicology and Aerosol Research).
Research group of the Cultex GmbH.
Image: Cultex Laboratory GmbH
With the foundation, the scientists could realise their dream of an own laboratory in which they can work on their scientific goals. Suitable rooms were found at the Medical Parc Hannover in which they have an area of 600 square meters on hand. Correspondingly the number of staff members has been increased from six to eleven. Beside five scientists inlusive the management, six technical staff members are currently working in the laboratory.
The research ist devided into two scientific categories:
1. development of cell models from cells of the human respiration tract and
2. the investigaton of the effects of airborne substances (aerosols).
For the co-called exposition studies during which the cultivated cells are exposed to the aerosols, the scientists have developed a specialised device, the CULTEX® Radial Flow System (CULTEX® RFS). It is a further development of the CULTEX® glass modules. The new device is a precision instrument which covers the high material requisition regarding to the compatibility of cellular systems and the areophysical conditions. This is nessessary for a reproducible and stabil aerosol exposition.
InVitroJobs asked the managing director and one of the founders of Cultex, Prof. Dr. Michaela Aufderheide, about the current status and the perspectives of their research.
You can read more here:
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