December -1

USA: Inauguration of the Doerenkamp-Zbinden Chair at Johns Hopkins University

Cheer for chair – some observations from the inauguration of Thomas Hartung as the Doerenkamp-Zbinden Chair for Evidence-based Toxicology

The Johns Hopkins University is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Johns Hopkins (named after Johns Hopkins, who left $7 million in his will 1873 – at the time, this was the largest philanthropic bequest in US history equivalent to $131 million in the year 2006) has graduate programs in medicine, public health, music, and international studies. Johns Hopkins is one of the top universities in the world – for example it ranked first of 20 top US academic institutions in total research & development spending for the 29th year in a row. And Johns Hopkins is known to entertain already for 28 years the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT), which became under the leadership of its founder Prof. Alan Goldberg a key promoter for alternative methods in the US, best known for its website AltWeb (http://altweb. jhsph.edu/) and the TestSmart workshops and conferences (last on developmental neurotoxicity in November 2008). It was not easy to find somebody to succeed Alan Goldberg, who turns 70 this fall: For more than four years, search committees looked for a candidate with a reputation and academic standing adequate for this prominent position.

Thomas Hartung fulfilled these criteria – a professor from the University of Konstanz, Germany, with more than 300 scientific papers and from 2002 to 2008 head of ECVAM, the European Center for the Validation of Alternative Methods. When asked what made him change to the US, his answer was quick: “The fantastic environment of Hopkins and the enthusiastic discussion on a paradigm shift in toxicology stirred by the vision report from the US National Academy of Sciences”. The Doerenkamp-Zbinden Foundation enabled this change by endowing a chair for evidence-based toxicology linked to CAAT. On the basis of this endowment Hopkins commits to maintain a chair with this research direction until the university ceases to exist.

On 12th of May 2009, we were able to witness the celebration of the inauguration, which demonstrated impressively, how much the university embraces this donation and this area of research. University president Ron Daniels and Dean Michael Klag left no doubt about their full support, expressing their appreciation for the past of CAAT and their expectations for seeing it further flourish in the future.

In an entertaining presentation, Thomas Hartung laid out some stations of his career, which led him to Baltimore. As a thought starter, he recalled when he synthesized aspirin as a student of biochemistry and medicine in Tuebingen, Germany. Seeing the result of his work, he wondered whether he would dare to swallow it. Most probably not, if he would rely on to todate’s toxicology, which has shown that the chemical is “harmful if swallowed”, a skin, eye and respiratory irritant, a co-carcinogen and embryotoxic in cat, dog, rat, mouse and monkey. Good that there was no toxicology in 1899 – the drug would hardly have made it to the market. In marked contrast, after one million billions of pills taken by men, annual production is close to 50 thousand tons and sales close to $ 800 million. Hartung then showed, how his mentor Albrecht Wendel, Tuebingen and Konstanz, guided him toward pharmacology and toxicology, citing former FDA president Arnold Lehmann “You too can become a toxicologist in two easy lessons, each ten years long.“ He continued showing how the years in ECVAM with the European Commission have shaped his view on toxicology and the need for new approaches. The close collaboration with Alan Goldberg and CAAT during these years enabled a smooth transition now. Among others Hartung and Goldberg published in 2005 an article in Scientific American (later translated into Arabian, Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portugese, Spanish and other) entitled “Protecting more than animals”. This describes well their joint approach, which stresses that humane science is the best science – to protect consumers and patients as well as animals.

Finally, Hartung explained again his concept to translate evidence-based Medicine to toxicology (see also his article in 2/09 issue of Altex). All together, an entertaining presentation, which set the scene for prospects in research, education and the “CAATalyst” role of the center.

The Doerenkamp-Zbinden foundation is proud to have helped install at such prominent place a chair to support the paradigm shift in toxicology. The choice of the inaugural professor raises hopes as to the contribution to be expected. By supporting the Transatlantic Think Tank of Toxicology (t4) – a collaboration of the toxicology oriented Doerenkamp-Zbinden chairs in Konstanz, Utrecht and Baltimore – the support continues to make a new approach in toxicology possible. The photographs from the inauguration give an impression of the event – a milestone on the long road to go.