IBMC researcher awarded Young Animal Welfare Scientist of the Year

Nuno Henrique Franco, IBMC researcher, is the winner of the 2013 UFAW Young Animal Welfare Scientist of the Year, presented by the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare at its International Symposium ‘Science in the Service of Animal Welfare: Priorities around the world’ in Barcelona on 4th July.

Nuno Franco was awarded his Doctoral degree (with Distinction) at the University of Porto in 2012 for his thesis on 'Animal Welfare and the implementation of refinement in biomedical research' and has published a series of papers on this subject. Through his work, he has promoted the use of biomarkers that give early indications of the state of disease, in studies of infectious diseases using animal models, so that these can be used as humane end points and the later stages of the disease can be avoided. As he says in a recent paper published in PloS Pathogens1, “A science-driven approach for the termination of animal studies may not only prevent unnecessary and avoidable suffering, but also contribute to optimizing financial and human resources, enhancing the scientific output and speeding up the scientific process.”

SOUCE: Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW)

¹ Franco NH, Correia-Neves M, Olsson IAS (2012) How “Humane” Is Your Endpoint?—Refining the Science-Driven Approach for Termination of Animal Studies of Chronic Infection. PLoS Pathog 8(1): e1002399. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1002399