Many animal lovers would like to donate to medical research, but they are put off by the cruel use of animals in many labs. In 1970, Evelyn Martin, a Vancouver nurse, faced such a dilemma and attacked it head on. She founded the B.C. Foundation for Non-Animal Research, which directs donations exclusively to researchers who use modern, alternative methods such as computer modeling and adult human skin cell cultures.

The B.C. Foundation for Non-Animal Research has helped purchase the following sensitive instruments in order to aid non-animal cancer research:

•photomicroscope
•thermal energy analyzer
•spectrofluorometer
•nitrosamine analyzer
•preparative liquid chromatograph.

We provide a yearly bursary of $10,000 (the Evelyn Martin Fellowship) for a UBC student working in non-animal techniques, including:

•research on ovarian cancer in human cells
•the prevention of melanoma
•human tissue culture model of malignant cells to study variation among tumors
•studies in tissue culture attempting to arrest cancerous tumor growth.

We are funding various researchers at the BC Cancer Research Centre, including a $12,000 Grant for research relating to carcinogenic and toxic effects of dietary chemicals on human cells. The researchers have acknowledged the support of the foundation in their published papers.

Other funding helps finance researchers at the University of British Columbia, working on:

•computer modelling in heart research
•an alternative to toxicity tests which use animals for identifying the bacterial strains which produce diphtheria toxin
•extending the life of readily available human cells in a culture medium.

Dr. Takayo Ota, former recipient of the BCFNAR scholarship, now has a position at the Mayo Clinic