A professor at the University of Navarra, president of the European platform ECOPA
Adela López de Cerain will head this organization, which promotes the research of alternatives to animal experimentation.
Adela López de Cerain, professor of Toxicology at the University of Navarra, was recently elected president of ECOPA (European Consensus-Platform for Alternatives) in Brussels. This is a body that integrates national platforms for alternative methods in experimental animal practices, in which the academic, business, governmental and animal welfare worlds are represented.
Among other functions, together with other members of committee, Adela López de Cerain will be in charge of the coordination and dissemination of European projects in this area.
ECOPA works for promote the research of alternatives to animal experimentation and its application internship, trying to apply the 3Rs strategy: 'Replace', use non-animal models of laboratory; 'Reduce', minimize as much as possible the use of animals, in particular by optimizing the experimental design ; and 'Refine', which implies, among other factors, a suitable training of the staff in good practices.
The objectives of this platform have an impact especially on the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry; and on the industry Chemistry, due to the new REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical substances) strategy on chemicals and their safe use, which came into force in June 2007 (Regulation EC 1907/2006) in the European Union.