The Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing is an academic center affiliated with the Division of Toxicological Sciences in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Text Size:
TestSmart Pharmaceuticals
May 7-9, 2001
PIER 5 HOTEL
711 Eastern Avenue
Baltimore, Maryland
Sponsors: 3M, Bristol-Meyers Squibb Company, Huntingdon Life Sciences, Schering-Plough Research Institute, and Taconic Farms, Inc.
Abstract for TestSmart--Pharmaceuticals: An Efficient and Humane Approach to Predictors of Potential Toxic Effects of Drugs
Altweb and the Search for Alternatives
Lisa Libowitz
Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing
Altweb, the Alternatives to Animal Testing Website, was developed to provide assistance to investigators, IACUC members, and others seeking reliable information on refinement, reduction, and replacement methods. Managed by the Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing, the site is governed by a Project Team of organizations representing industry, academia, the alternatives field, and the regulatory and animal welfare communities. Through the creation of a clearinghouse, search engine, pain management database, and other resources, Altweb offers a valuable tool to investigators who take seriously their obligation to consider alternatives to painful or distressful procedures.
Altweb was created to serve as a gateway to alternatives resources, information, and news — on the Internet and beyond
What Is Altweb?
- A clearinghouse of information and news
- An alternatives search engine
- A producer of specialty databases and resources, AND
- A tool, to help others better develop and use alternative methods
Altweb: A Brief History
- Launched October 1, 1997
- With funds from Procter & Gamble, the Humane Society of the United States, and the National Institutes of Health
- Managed by CAAT
Altweb is Intended to Serve...
- Biomedical researchers
- Industry
- The international regulatory community(ies)
- IACUCs
- Veterinarians, lab technicians, and others who who work with laboratory animals
...as well as...
- Educators
- Students
- The animal welfare community
- The international alternatives community
- The general public
Altweb has 5 goals:
- to provide scientists and others with a means for conducting an appropriate and complete alternatives search from one central, easily accessible location.
- to serve as a clearinghouse for alternatives information, publications, databases, calendars, and other resources
- to support the creation and maintenance of new alternative resources as needed, when no other organization can/will do so
- to promote the use of alternatives resources by publicizing them on the site, through e-mail, at scientific meetings, or other outreach
- to facilitate communication and collaboration among members of the alternatives community, in particular those who work in database or information management
Altweb Project Team
- Academia
- CAA (UC-Davis)
- Animal welfare
- CLAW (MSPCA)
- HSUS
- SCAW
- Federal government
- EPA
- FDA
- ICCVAM
- NIH (OLAW)
- NLM
- USDA (APHIS & AWIC)
- VA
- International members
- CCAC
- FRAME
- Lab animal unit, Norwegian College of Veterinary Medicine (NORINA)
- The University of Utrecht
- ZEBET
- Industry
- Procter & Gamble
- And, of course, CAAT
Some statistics...
- Currently, we get about 40,000 visitors per month (41,350 in April)
- From more than 70 countries
- Spending an average of 9 minutes on site
Altweb as a tool, then and now
- 1997 — Establishment of Altweb as a clearinghouse
- 2000 — Launch of the Altweb Search Engine
- 1998-2001 — Development of the Pain Management Database
- 2001-2002 — Creation of a web page to help U.S. investigators comply with Policy #12, PHS policy re: alternatives search
Altweb as a clearinghouse offers:
- Journals
- Proceedings
- Technical reports
- Books
- Fact sheets
- Alternatives news
- Funding information
- A calendar
- Regulations
Altweb as a clearinghouse offers:
- And, most important, a growing number of links to sites containing information on alternatives or animal welfare.
Altweb as clearinghouse
- Our goal stays the same: to point visitors to the information they need, quickly and easily.
- We maintain the resources we post on our site, but we are happy (eager, even) to see other organizations "take back" their resources and let us point to them.
- Ideally, Altweb would be a list of organized links, with explanatory information.
For example: Special section on MABs
- What are Monoclonal Antibodies? Definition, description, uses, history, issues
- Ascites Method vs. In Vitro Methods: Cost, effectiveness, pain and distress
- MAB Production: Description of Methods
- Policies, regulations, guidelines, recommendations
- Where to get in vitro MABs: Academic Core Centers and Commercial Facilities
Coming in the next 12 months...
- An alternatives retrospective — What are the refinement, reduction, and replacement methods that have become accepted in the last 20 years?
- A special section on refinement, pulling together all available online resources on pain assessment and management, humane endpoints, and enrichment.
The Altweb Search Engine
- Allows users to search approximately 70 pre-selected web sites simultaneously
- Includes Altweb and other CAAT web sites in its search
- Provides access to technical reports, meeting proceedings, journal abstracts, and other documents often not available elsewhere
Altweb versus MEDLINE
A recent MEDLINE search using the keywords "blood-brain barrier" and "drugs" returned 2,623 citations.
A search the same day using the Altweb search engine returned 159, beginning with "Pharmacokinetics in Early Research--Characterization of an in vitro blood-brain barrier model system for studying drug transport and metabolism." This ECVAM report is not available on MEDLINE.
Altweb Pain Management Database
- Compiled by Tim Allen, technical information specialist at AWIC
- Contains approximately 10,000 records — 1990 to the present
- Covers MEDLINE, AGRICOLA, TOXLINE, and AGRIS
- Includes rats, mice, primates, dogs, cats, rabbits, pigs, guinea pigs, birds, sheep, fish, and exotic species
- Provides species citations and records from human clinical studies relevant to animal research
- Can be searched by animal, by drug, or by procedure
- Provides information on available drugs and the side effects of commonly used drugs
- Uses the common chemical name for all drugs
- 98% of the records include detailed abstracts
- 50% of the records include drug dose information
- Will be updated 3 times annually
- Offers descriptors in 3 languages — English, Spanish, and French
Altweb versus MEDLINE
A recent search of MEDLINE using the keywords "dog or dogs" and "thoracotomy" yielded 593 citations. The same search of the Altweb Pain Management Database yielded 17 — all focused on either anesthesia or analgesia.
Future databases?
Altweb is seeking partners to collaborate with on the following topics:
- Humane endpoints
- Best practices
- Enrichment
Altweb sponsors
- Alternatives Research & Development Foundation
- Center for Laboratory Animal Welfare at the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
- Dorenkamp-Zbinden Foundation
- Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation
- Humane Society of the United States
- The Kenneth A. Scott Charitable Trust
- NIH Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare
- Procter & Gamble Company
- Regina Bauer Frankenberg Foundation for Animal Welfare