The University of Nottingham

December 17 2014

Stroke is the third leading cause of death and the leading cause of adult disability in the UK. It is vital that new drug therapies and rehabilitative strategies are developed for this devastating disease.

Dr Rebecca Trueman, in the School of Life Sciences, has been awarded £90,000 from the National Centre for the Replacement Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) to supervise a three year PhD studentship to improve welfare and minimise the suffering of rodents used in stroke research and assess and promote the use of a milder model of stroke.

The NC3Rs has invested £900,000 to support studentship projects at eight UK institutions to minimise and improve animal research. Each of the projects will investigate ways to replace the use of animals in research, reduce the number of animals used and improve laboratory animal welfare. The projects range from developing a model of ovarian cancer in a small silicone device, to seeking insights into the underlying biology of aging using roundworms.

Stroke rehabilitation research

Dr Trueman said: “To discover and develop these new treatments requires the use of animals, primarily mice. The funding of this project from the NC3Rs will allow my team to develop new, more sensitive ways to assess the effects of stroke in mice. This means that we will be able to induce a far milder form of stroke than is commonly used for research, therefore significantly improving animal welfare but still enabling new treatments to be developed for this disabling and life limiting disease.”

Dr Vicky Robinson, Chief Executive of the NC3Rs said: “We are committed to supporting scientists at the start of their careers as it is vital to embed the 3Rs principles at this early stage. These young scientists are people who will take the 3Rs approach into the future. The PhD projects that we have funded in the past have explored some really exciting areas of science and the findings are already having a real impact on the use of animals in research.”

Studentships vacancies arising from our 2014 awards will be advertised by the relevant research institutions and on our website in early 2015.

Animal Research at The University of Nottingham is conducted according to strict legislative requirements underpinned by a strong culture of care and compliance.