About Us: Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing

The Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) is a small, non-profit center. As part of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, we are dedicated to improving health for both people and animals. (In March 2000, U.S. News & World Report ranked Johns Hopkins #1 among all schools of public health.)

We promote humane science by supporting the creation, development, validation, and use of alternatives to animals in research, product safety testing, and education. We seek to effect change by working with scientists in industry, government, and academia to find new ways to replace animals with non-animal methods, reduce the numbers of animals necessary, or refine methods to make them less painful or stressful to the animals involved.

Information about CAAT-Europe can be found here.

Information about the Transatlantic Think Tank of Toxicology (t⁴) can be found here.

• Vision/Mission Statement
• History
• Timeline
• Achievements
• Advisory Board
• Programs
• Staff
• Sponsors
• CAAT Brochure (2.2 MB PDF)

We also have a website devoted to 3Rs and alternatives news and information—Altweb: The Global Clearinghouse for Information on Alternatives to Animal Testing.

And our official journal, ALTEX: Alternatives to Animal Experimentation, can be found here.

You can follow CAAT on Facebook and Twitter, too, or visit our YouTube channel.

This page is also now available in Ukrainian.

CAAT-Europe, housed at the University of Konstanz, coordinates transatlantic activities to promote education in humane science and will participate in and/or coordinate publicly and privately funded European projects. Dr. Thomas Hartung serves as program liaison representing Johns Hopkins, and Dr. Marcel Leist serves as the University of Konstanz liaison. Thomas Hartung is also a Professor for Pharmacology and Toxicology at Konstanz. Furthermore, Alexander Burkle (Molecular Toxicology) and Daniel Dietrich (Human and Environmental Toxicology) of Konstanz are members of CAAT-Europe.

CAAT -Europe plans to develop a joint education program between the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and the University of Konstanz. This program will include e-courses, CAAT’s existing certificate program on humane science, a student exchange, and collaboration in the International Graduate School (International Research Training Group— IRTG 1331— Konstanz, Germany and Zürich, Switzerland “Cell-based Characterization of Disease Mechanisms in Tissue Destruction and Repair.”)

Goals of CAAT-Europe:

• Establish a CAAT EU faculty and advisory board composed of sponsor representatives and prominent academics from Europe
• Establish a competence base of European experts available for project work
• Participate in the Transatlantic Think Tank for Toxicology (t⁴) devoted to conceptual work for the paradigm shift in toxicology
• Coordinate a series of information days on relevant developments from the US in Europe,  a reciprocal of the program already established by CAAT in the US
• Set up  transatlantic consortia for international research projects on alternative methods
• Support ALTEX as the official journal of CAAT, EUSAAT, and t⁴.
• Develop strategic projects with sponsors to promote humane science and new toxicology

CAAT-Europe at the University of Konstanz
c./o. Dr. Mardas Daneshian (CEO)
University of Konstanz
POB 600
78457 Konstanz
Germany
Phone: +49 7531 882233
Fax:  +49 7531 884156
email: caat-eu@uni-konstanz.de