munich

Forty-six top US neuroscientists have written an open letter to politicians and university professors in the German state of Bremen protesting at the treatment of a leading neuroscientist who has received a string of threats from animal-rights activists.

The signatories to the letter include the Nobel laureates Francis Crick and David Hubel. They say that they endorse the basic research into cognition that Andreas Kreiter is carrying out using macaque monkeys, and stress that the work could have long-term importance for treating psychiatric and neurological disorders.

The letter also attacks the lack of local support for Kreiter, who has been continually criticized both by animal rights activists and by some of his colleagues since his arrival in Bremen in 1997 (see Nature 396, 505; 1998).

“It is perhaps understandable that some individuals ⃛ can be influenced by the narrow ideology and polemics of the animal rights organizations,” says the letter. “We are astonished, however, that substantial numbers of academicians, government representatives and journalists appear sympathetic to the efforts of these organizations to prevent Professor Kreiter and others from performing their research.”

Last year, more than 100 professors at the University of Bremen — including a number of biologists — signed a letter calling for Kreiter's research to be terminated. The letter was sent to all members of the university members and to the government of Bremen.

But Hans Flohr, director of the University of Bremen's brain research institute, says the letter is a “great help”. He adds: “In a small state like Bremen, politics is very close to the people, and politicians feel very much the influence of pressure groups.”

The powerful international voice in support of Kreiter's research is a strong counterbalance to this pressure, he says.

Wolfgang Appel, president of the German Animal Protection Association, says he understands that scientists working in the same field would want to support each other, but says he could gather “hundreds of other scientists who could give equally well-argued cases against the value of Kreiter's primate work”.