Jan-Bas Prins, Professor of Laboratory Animal Science and Director of the Central Animal Facility at Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, has been appointed as the new Director of the Biological Research Facility (BRF) at the Francis Crick Institute.
Jan-Bas will join the Crick in October. As part of the appointment he will also hold an honorary professorship at UCL to lecture in animal science and welfare.
Jan-Bas completed his PhD in Laboratory Animal Sciences at the University of Utrecht in 1990, then went on to postdoctoral positions at Oxford University and Erasmus University. He led the pre-clinical division of the Department of Pulmonary Diseases at Erasmus Medical Centre, before joining Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) in 2002 to head up the Central Animal Facility.
At LUMC, Jan-Bas centralised the animal facilities and helped to embed a culture of care throughout the organisation. He developed training programmes to ensure that everyone working with animals put the 3Rs at the heart of their work: replacing animal research with alternatives, reducing the number of animals used per experiment and refining experiments to minimise harm and discomfort.
"Jan-Bas is at the forefront of animal science and welfare, so we are delighted that he will be joining the Crick to help maintain the BRF's high standards and further refine our processes," says Steve Gamblin, Director of Scientific Platforms. "With his unique mix of scientific and operational expertise, Jan-Bas is ideally-placed to lead our world-class animal facilities."
Throughout his career, Jan-Bas has sought to improve the environmental, housing, care and experimental conditions of research animals. He works to the principle that what's good for the animals is also good for the science.
"I'm excited to be joining the Francis Crick Institute, it's an impressive enterprise and a real beacon for cutting-edge science," says Jan-Bas. "I'm really looking forward to joining the team and working with everyone, from the technicians who run the facility to the researchers who use it. I want to hear what's working well and where we can improve, to ensure that we always do the best that we can for the animals and the science.
"Everyone in the BRF should be proud of what they are achieving, advancing animal welfare and world-class science. The BRF has brilliant infrastructure and staff and I'd like to build on its success to improve things further. I want the Crick to have the best animal facility of its kind, leading the way in responsible animal research."
