The origins of the DZ Foundation (DZF) lie in the award of a yearly prize for distinguished services to animal protection in science. Despite repeated reorientation of the Foundation, this prize has always been retained. The prize serves public relations, raises the level of awareness but also defines the Foundation’s position. Single persons, teams as well as institutions can be suggested for the prize. The suggestions are treated confidentially.

Suggestions for the prize are to be made by the members of the Foundation Board (FB) and the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of the DZF. Suggestions for the yearly prize may be made by the 31st of December of the previous year.

If by the 31st of December no convincing suggestions for a laureate have been made to the FB, the prize is not awarded in the following year.

The scientific achievements which may lead to the award of the DZ-Prize must conform to the furtherance guidelines of the DZF.

Next to scientists, persons in the fields of animal protection or philosophy and public persons may be awarded the DZ-Prize in so far as they have distinguished themselves in the sense of the replacement and reduction of animal experiments.

The prize is to be awarded in a dignified ceremony. Scientific meetings such as CAAT and CAAT Europe events are preferred.

The prize will be bestowed with 10.000 CHF off from 2021.

Laureates of the Doerenkamp-Zbinden Prize

2022   Andrea Terron

The 2022 Doerenkamp-Zbinden (DZ) Price was awarded to Andrea Terron on occasion of the ASPIS meeting in Sitges (Spain; 24.-25.11.2022). The award speech was given by M. Leist (University of Konstanz) and recognized in particular the achievements of the winner concerning “implementation of NAM for food safety assessment”. Andrea Terron is a pathologist with 20 years of experience in industry, and his > 10 years of work at EFSA showed him the limitations of animal-based data in regulatory toxicology. Two highlights of his work on the implementation of NAM are the neurotoxicity assessment of compounds on basis of a newly-generated AOP, and the work with OECD to establish procedures for developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) assessment on the basis of NAM. Andrea chaired a working group to establish AOP:3 “parkinsonian motor deficits as consequence of mitochondrial complex I inhibition”. He brought this AOP not only to the highest validation level, but also continued on practical applications, and on creating a publication format that may be exemplary for transparent communication of AOP (Terron et al. (2018) Arch Toxicol 92, 41-82). To provide material, data and experience for a draft guidance on the use of in vitro data for DNT assessment, he organized EFSA projects, working groups and the communication with OECD. Some of the initial work has been published (Blum et al. (2022) Chemosphere 311, 137035), and a draft OECD guidance is at advanced stages. Altogether, the work of Andrea Terron has shown that difficult toxicological domains can be assessed by NAM and that applied case studies can pave the way towards regulatory implementation. With this achievement, Andrea Terron joins a long row of price winners from academia, industry and regulatory authorities. The DZ foundation looks forward to more price suggestions in the future. The award is one of the foundations main instruments to create awareness for the importance of the replacement of experimental animals and to highlight the great achievements in this field.

2021    Helena Kandarova (Slovakia)

2020    Marcel Leist (Germany)*, Bas Blaauboer (The Netherlands)*, Pierre Cosson (Switzerland)*, Thomas Hartung (USA)*, Mohammad A. Akbarsha (India)*

2011    Sonja Jeram (Slovenia)

2010    Michael Balls (UK), Walter Pfaller (Austria)

2009    Cross-agency workgroup (US EPA): Tox21*

2007    Günter Verheugen, Vice President of the European Commission (EU)*

2007    zet (Austria) and Animal Welfare Academy (Germany)

2006    David Dewhurst (UK)

2005    Manfred Liebsch (Germany) and Herman B. W. M. Koëter (Italy)

2004    Franz P. Gruber (Switzerland)

2002    Coenraad Hendriksen (The Netherlands)

2001    Alan Goldberg and Ian Kimber (USA)

2000    Horst Spielmann (Germany) and Vera Rogier (Belgium)

1999    Andrew Rowan (USA)

1998    Bert van Zutphen (The Netherlands)

1997    Michael Irwin, Carl Pinkert and R. Moffatt (USA)

1996    Albrecht Wendel and Thomas Hartung (Germany)

1990    Paul Flecknell (UK)

1989    Beat Gaehwiler (Switzerland) and Harvey S. Singer (USA)

1988    Charles E. Branch (USA)

1987    James E. Heavner (USA)

* - The winner received an honorary award for their achieevement and not the prize money

Laureates of the ALTEX Prizes:

Since the year 2014 the annual ALTEX Prize is sponsored by the Doerenkamp-Zbinden Foundation. The prize is given to the first author of the best article published in ALTEX in the previous year. The best article is selected by the ALTEX Editorial Board, the Board of ALTEX Edition and the ALTEX editorial office. The Prize is bestowed with 2´000 CHF.

The winners of the ALTEX Prize are:

2022: Wanda van der Stel, ALTEX 38(4), 615–635
https://doi.org/10.14573/altex.2103051

2021: Taylor Rycrof**, ALTEX 37(1), 2020; 64-74
https://doi.org/10.14573/altex.1906201

2020: Pilar Prieto**, ALTEX 36(1), 2019; 39-64
https://doi.org/10.14573/altex.1805181

2019: Fabian A. Grimm, ALTEX 35(4), 2018; 441-452
https://doi.org/10.14573/altex.1805301

2018: Martin Paparella, ALTEX 34(2), 2017; 235-252
https://doi.org/10.14573/altex.1608281

2017: Uwe Marx, ALTEX 33(3), 2016; 272-321
https://doi.org/10.14573/altex.1603161

2016: Heike A. Behrensdorf-Nicol, ALTEX 32(2), 2015; 137-142.
https://doi.org/10.14573/altex.1412181

2015: Sarah E. Cavanaugh, ALTEX 31(3), 279-302.
https://doi.org/10.14573/altex.1310071

2014: Miriam N. Jacobs, ALTEX 30(3), 2013; 331-351
https://doi.org/10.14573/altex.2013.3.331

** - The winner did not receive the prize money. Upon the winner's wish the prize money was donated to a non-profit organization.