Key Lecturers

Prof. Dr. René H. Tolba is Professor and Director of the Institute for Laboratory Animal Science & Experimental Surgery, Medical Faculty RWTH Aachen University. He is also the current President of the German Society of Laboratory Animal Science (GV-SOLAS). His research focus is visceral organ transplantation and preservation, as well as animal models for various disciplines. He is responsible for training and education according to FELASA recommendations and teaching in M.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering.
Additionally, the Institute has several research projects within the 3R topics and a project funded by the German Ministry for Research and Education (BMBF) for developing educational media for Laboratory Animal Research.
In the session with Prof. Tolba the following topics will be taught:

• Regulatory affairs needed for the registration of medical products
• How to design and evaluate your experiments
• Architecture and  Facility Design and the implication for routine mode of the facility
• Applied Anaesthesia and Analgesics Regimens -basics, advanced protocols and tips
• Microsurgery -basic training and advanced skills

PD Dr. phil. nat. Julia Steitz is a senior scientist and Director of the Central Laboratories of the Institute for Laboratory Animal Science, Medical Faculty RWTH Aachen University.  The Central Laboratories include Hematology, Clinical Chemistry, Microbiology, and Histopathology. She is also a Principal Investigator in several research projects focusing on the development of tumor models for the analysis of novel immunotherapeutic agents. Additionally, her research activities include the analysis of efficacy, safety and toxicity of medical products and tumor therapeutics in vitro and in different in vivo animal models. PD Dr. Steitz is a lecturer in educational programs run according to FELASA recommendations and in the RWTH’s M.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering program. 
In the sessions with PD Dr. J. Steitz the following topics will be taught:

• Regulatory Affairs in preclinical studies
• How to design, perform and evaluate experiments  (basic training and skills)
• How to use cell culture systems to reduce, refine and replace animal experiments
• Basics of Clinical Chemistry, Hematology and Molecular Biology and their methods
• How to choose the right animal model
• Animal models in Immunology, Oncology and Infectious Diseases

Prof. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dominik Gross is the Director of the Institute for History, Theory and Ethics in Medicine at the RWTH Aachen University and Chairman of the Clinical Ethics Committee at Aachen University Hospital. Prof. Gross studied dentistry, history/philosophy/archaeology and medicine, completing each with a doctorate, and in 1998 received postdoctoral qualifications in history, theory and ethics in medicine. In 2005 he was appointed Chair of History, Theory and Ethics in Medicine at RWTH Aachen University. His main teaching and research areas are the professionalization of health care professions, ethical questions in clinical medicine, technology ethics and technology acceptance, as well as animal ethics. In addition to his scientific and teaching activities he is an active political consultant including for the German Federal Ministry of Health, the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research, the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) and the German Medical Association.
In the sessions with Prof. Gross the following topics will be addressed:

• Ethics in animal experimentation
• Introduction to ethics with a special focus on ethical theories and technical terms (ethics, bioethics, medical ethics, clinical ethics)
• Animal experimentation and ethics: General remarks
• Moral status of animals and personhood criteria
• Positions concerning animal ethics (strong egalitarianism, weak egalitarianism, hierarchism, speciesism)

Prof. Dr. Franz-Josef Kaup is a veterinarian and has been based at the German Primate Center (DPZ) in Göttingen for over twenty years. He is the Scientific Director’s Representative and Head of the Pathology Unit. Furthermore, he is responsible for primate husbandry and is the DPZ’s Animal Welfare Officer. Since 2000 he has also been Chair of Laboratory Animal Pathology, a bridging professorship with the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover. He is also  a Diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Pathologists and ECLAM. Prof. Kaup’s main research areas include diseases in non-human primates, in particular infectious diseases. Using various animal models (SIV/HIV, Orthopocks, Helicobacter pylori, Echinococcus multilocularis) pathogenetic investigations into pathogen spread within the organism, affected cell types and associated morphological changes are performed in Old and New-World monkeys.
In the session with Prof. Kaup the following topics will be taught:

• Knowledge of zoonoses and their spread: Human and laboratory animal as reciprocal sources of infection
• Knowledge of dissection techniques for common laboratory animal species
• Pathomorphological methods, including tissue sampling, for further investigations
• Possibilities and limits of pathology in disease diagnosis
• Pathology as part of health monitoring in animals
• Fundamentals of tumor pathology
• Pathology and diseases of non-human primates

PD Dr. Margarete Arras joined the Institute of Laboratory Animal Science, University of Zurich (CH) in 1997 as an executive veterinarian. In 2009 she was appointed Head of the Surgical Skills Laboratories and Veterinary Services and in 2012 took on the additional role of Head of the Animal Facilities at the University Hospital Zurich. PD Dr Arras’s current research interests focus on laboratory animal welfare, anaesthesiology and pain in laboratory animals. Furthermore, she is the Director of the Swiss ECLAM training program and Supervisor for licensed veterinarians in the European College of Laboratory Animal’s Swiss and German training programs. PD Dr. Arras is a member of numerous scientific organisations and since 2011 has served as the Vice President of GV-SOLAS (German Society of Laboratory Animal Science).
PD Dr. Arras will teach the following aspects of the M.Sc. Laboratory Animal Science program:

• Applied Anaesthesia and Analgesics Regimens -basics, advanced protocols and tip
• Microsurgery -basic training and advanced skills