Dr. Stefan Treue
Monday, 13 February 2012, 16:00, Large Operon, EMBL Heidelberg
Dr. Stefan Treue, University of Göttingen, Germany
The importance and ethics of basic neuroscience research with non-human primates
Abstract
Neurophysiological studies in awake, behaving rhesus monkeys are amongst the animal experiments that receive the most critical public attention.
The talk will use this type of research as an example to illustrate fundamental points about the importance, ethics, politics and the legal aspects of biomedical research with animals. This will include possible differences between basic and applied research, the Basel Declaration, the EU directive on using animal for scientific purposes and its transposition into German law as well as the role of scientists in the debate about animal research.
Biography
Stefan Treue is Professor for Biopsychology and Cognitive Neurosciences at the University of Göttingen and director of the German Primate Center, the Leibniz Institute for Primate Research in Göttingen. His research interest focuses on the processing of sensory information in primate cortex and the modulation of this process by cognitive influences, most notably attention. His main approach to tackle these questions are extracellular recordings from neurons in the visual cortex of awake, behaving rhesus monkeys trained to perform attentional tasks.
Stefan Treue has received the Leibniz Price of the DFG and is a member of the Goöttingen Academy of Sciences. Beyond his scientific work, he is involved in issues relating to the responsible use of animals in research. This includes coordinating EUPRIM-NET, an EU-funded network of the European primate centers. He has contributed to the development of the new EU directive on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes and has been involved in drafting the Basel Declaration.