Leslie Turnberg, Baron Turnberg
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Leslie Arnold Turnbery, Baron Turnberg has wide experience in the medical and health services fields (research, clinical practice, administration and management). He has published four books and some 150 articles on medical and scientific research. He has Honorary Fellowships of sixteen UK and overseas Colleges and Academies and has held a large number of prestigious positions, including Professor of Medicine University of Manchester from 1973 to 1997 and President of the Royal College of Physicians from 1992 to 1997. His present appointments include: President of the Medical Protection Society; Chairman of the Board of the Public Health Laboratory Service; President of the Medical Council on Alcoholism; Scientific Adviser to the Association of Medical Research Charities; Trustee of the Wolfson Foundation; Vice President of the Academy of Medical Sciences; and, most recently, Chair of the UK Forum for Genetics and Insurance. He has received a number of research awards and medals, was honoured with a knighthood in 1994 and created a life peer as Baron Turnberg, of Cheadle in the County of Cheshire in 2005.
[edit] Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research
In May 2004 the UK Government announced that it is establishing a national centre for "best practice" in animal testing. The Board of the new centre will be chaired by Lord Turnberg, scientific adviser to the Association of Medical Research Charities. The Government wants the new centre to focus on the "three R's": the replacement, refinement and reduction of animal tests. The "three R's" were first coined in WMS Russell and Rex Birch's 1959 book The Principles of Humane Experimentation Technique.[1].
The National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research will explore alternatives to animal testing, such as experiments on cultured cells or using computer simulations.
The Government currently still regards animal testing as necessary, but science minister Lord Sainsbury of Turville said at the announcement that a "major opportunity" now existed to make progress in improving the welfare of animals used in testing through the three R's.
The centre will be housed within the Medical Research Council's existing Centre for Best Practice for Animals in Research (CBPAR) and build upon its work.
