Animal Rights Prize to Geny Groothuis

Prof. Geny Groothuis, professor of Drug Metabolism and Toxicology at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, has won the ‘Lef in het Lab’ prize [Dare to be different in the lab] awarded by the Dutch Society for the Protection of Animals. Groothuis won the prize for her efforts to reduce the number of animal experiments. Frank Dales, director of the Society, presented the trophy on Sunday morning during the VARA radio 1 programme Vroege Vogels.

 In order to see whether new drugs have nasty side effects, Groothuis developed a methodology using extremely thin slices of human tissue. The tissue comes from organs removed during an operation. The slices are kept artificially alive in the laboratory.

Geny Groothuis studied biochemistry at the University of Groningen and gained her PhD at the Faculty of Medical Sciences. She is head of the department of Pharmacokinetics, Toxicology and Targeting and conducts research into the metabolism of drugs.  In 1998 she was awarded the Hugo van Poelgeest prize for alternatives to animal experiments.

Listeners of the Vroege Vogels programme could vote by internet for the four researchers nominated for the prize. Nearly half of the votes were for Groothuis.