Today the NC3Rs has announced an increase in funding of projects. The £2.6 million will fund 10 new projects, the abstracts of which are on the NC3Rs website.

The majority of the projects slot into the replacement arm of the organisation (six projects), whilst reduction and refinement have two projects each. Since its inception, the NC3Rs has invested £8 million, and, as Dr Vicky Robinson - chief executive of the NC3Rs - recognises, ‘we are starting to see the results of this in terms of reducing the number of animals used’.

One such example is that of the work of Dr Siouxsie Wiles, who won the NC3Rs prize in 2005 for her work in improving design of bacterial infection experiments, leading to a reduction in the number of mice needed for this research. Dr Wiles found infection was more efficient when mice were infected naturally by putting an infected mouse in a cage with others, compared with artificial infection routes.

Dr Wiles has been awarded funding for a new project, aiming to develop ways of making human disease agents ‘light up’. Traditional disease models can involve animal suffering, and bacteria numbers are determined by killing infected animals at defined points. If the bacteria are genetically engineered to produce light, they can be measured using imaging techniques in real time, in living animals. So this project should reduce the numbers of animals used and the suffering of individual mice.

The government’s commitment to funding this research was announced last year. The innovative projects announced today are a welcome addition to the extensive scientific work already being done - by public bodies and by commercial concerns - to reduce, replace and refine animal use in research.