Ronald Naumann has been awarded the 2022 ISTT 3Rs Prize

This prize recognises the work Ronald Naumann in developing a technique that implements the Reduction principle of the 3Rs, to reduce the number of animals used in research.

Ronald has been working with laboratory animals for 25 years and leads the Transgenic Core Facility at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden (MPI-CBG). The Prize recognizes a technology development work performed in preparation of a PhD.

Even in the era of Genome Editing, mouse embryonic stem cell injections still play a very important role, especially for the successful integration of large genetic alterations. In order to determine the mutation of a newly generated mouse line in the F1 generation, a large number of matings often has to be carried out. This produces a large number of offspring, many of which are of no scientific use. Through intensive collaboration with Peter Dobrowolski (GVG Leipzig), Ronald developed a Short Tandem Repeat- (STR-) based analysis system that already detects an exact inheritance guarantee in the sperm. The transmission of the mutation to the next generation is thus predictable. This eliminates the often months-long mating process to achieve successful germline transmission

“This technique has a very large effect on the reduction of experimental animals. Their number can be planned more clearly, and significantly fewer animals are produced without further scientific use. In addition, the STR-IVF technology has an enormously positive effect on the project time and the consumption of financial resources of a mouse generation.” Ronald Naumann