The Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT), founded in 1981, is part of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School 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 industry, government, and academia scientists to find new ways to replace animals with non-animal methods, reduce the number of animals necessary, or refine methods to make them less painful or stressful to the animals involved.

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.

CAAT-Europe’s objectives include building a faculty and advisory board, assembling a network of European experts, and actively participating in the Transatlantic Think Tank for Toxicology (t4). They aim to coordinate knowledge exchange programs with the US, set up international research consortia, support ALTEX as the official journal of CAAT, EUSAAT, and t4, and collaborate with sponsors on strategic projects promoting humane science and innovative toxicology.

Dr. Thomas Hartung is the program liaison representing Johns Hopkins, and Dr. Marcel Leist is the University of Konstanz liaison. Thomas Hartung is also a Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at Konstanz. Furthermore, Alexander Burkle (Molecular Toxicology) and Daniel Dietrich (Human and Environmental Toxicology) of Konstanz are members of CAAT-Europe.