The Humane Society of the United States today bestowed its 2007 Russell & Burch Award to Rodger Curren for his efforts to advance the development and implementation of non-animal methods in toxicity testing.
The HSUS presented the award at the Sixth World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences, The award recognizes scientists who have made outstanding contributions toward the advancement of alternative methods in the areas of biomedical research, testing, or higher education. Alternative methods are those that accomplish one or more of the Three Rs of replacing or reducing animal use in experiments, or refining such use so that animals experience less pain and distress.
Rodger Curren is president and co-founder of the Institute for In Vitro Sciences (IIVS), based in Gaithersburg, Md. Under Curren's leadership, IIVS works to promote the development, optimization, validation and acceptance of alternative (non-animal) testing and research methods.
According to Martin Stephens, HSUS vice president for animal research issues, "Dr. Curren has had a major influence on the field of non-animal methods of toxicity testing. His diverse efforts have included the development of customized, alternatives-based testing for industry; the formulation of the pre-validation concept; educational outreach to the regulatory and animal protection communities; and advocacy at key policy-setting meetings, as well as participation in the development, pre-validation and validation of new test methods."
Curren has co-developed the Reconstituted Micronucleus Skin Assay, for assessing chemically induced damage to genetic material, using the EpiDerm ™ human skin model. This assay will help cosmetic manufacturers comply with the European Union's 7th Amendment to the Cosmetics Directive law and spare the lives of thousands of animals.
Curren and IIVS are working alongside many U.S. manufacturers to demonstrate that non-animal methods (often used by the companies for the testing of other products) provide sufficient data to meet safety testing requirements for registering anti-microbial products with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Curren's early work and interest in this field led to the creation of the In Vitro Toxicology group at Microbiological Associates in 1990. As a member of this group he participated in the assessment of ocular and dermal irritation and investigations of organ-specific responses of diverse cells and tissues. In addition, Curren participated in the early activities that led to the eventual formation of the federal government's Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation on Alternative Methods (ICCVAM).
The Russell & Burch Award carries a $5,000 prize and trophy and is named in honor of William Russell and Rex Burch, the scientists who formulated the Three Rs approach.
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