objectives

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The Belgian Platform for Alternative Methods to animal testing (BPAM) is one of the scientific departments of the Prince Laurent Foundation.


Ambitious objectives :		 BPAM

- to promote alternative methods ;
- to encourage the development and validation of alternative methods ;
- to create awareness of the ethical dimension of animal experimentation ;
- to push for the introduction of validated alternative tests into national, European and international legislation.

The creation of a forum :

BPAM is a consensus group.
The Platform brings together the representatives of the four pillars concerned with animal experimentation :
- the pharmaceutical and chemical research-based industries ;
- the universities ;
- the competent authorities ;
- the animal welfare organisations.

Thanks to the personal involvement of Prince Laurent, all these individuals with divergent interests accept to meet, to discuss and to build together.

 BPAM

An interdisciplinary philosophy :
The mission of the Belgian Platform for Alternatives Methods to animal testing is based on the principle of the 3 "R"s put forward by Russell and Burch in 1959.

The principle covers :
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replacement : to replace animal experimentation by alternative methods, such as cell culture technologies or computer modelling ;

reduction : to reduce the total number of animals used in biomedical research (official statistics show that the number of laboratory animals used in Belgium decreased by two thirds between 1995 and 2001) ;
BPAM
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rationalisation : to take into account the welfare of the laboratory animals and do everything possible to reduce suffering, for example by the means of anaesthesia or analgesia

Achievements
The Platform supports research projects of a high scientific value in the field of replacement of laboratory animals, in toxicity testing for example. One of these projects, consists in the development of a reconstituted human cornea model used to test toxicity of chemicals or cosmetics without having recourse to animals such as rabbits or mice.


A mission of information
The Platform also organises scientific meetings. BPAM publishes the results of research concerning alternatives and publishes brochures for the scientific and ethical information of the general public (see publications).

A challenge : to reconcile technology and ethics
The actions of the Platform attempt to reconcile ethics and high technology. This challenge characterises all the activities of BPAM. The logo of the Platform represents the double helix of DNA, which indicates intuitively that the study of living matter and its functioning do not necessarily require experimentation.

Our favourite mice !
Our favourite mice are the ones attached to our computers, with which we can approach the living world without necessarily having recourse to experiments.