Vasyl Stus Donetsk National University
Faculty of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology, Institute of Biophysics and Physiology
When war broke out in eastern Ukraine in 2015, the National Vasyl Stus University of Donetsk fled to the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia. The Faculty of Biology had to leave all its equipment behind. The university rents rooms and sometimes equipment in order to continue university operations. Everything is lacking.
Oleg Ermishev from the Faculty of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology, Department of Biophysics and Physiology, came across our project through our website and asked for help. Dimitrij Leporskij visited the university in November 2019 for signing the agreement. Oleg Ermishev and Head of department Olga Dotsenko showed great interest in humane education and were grateful for the hardware and software (a projector, a laptop, software and videos).
Until now, 140 frogs have been decapitated every year for nerve and muscle physiological experiments. This will end on 1 September 2020 at the latest.
Oleg Ermishev and Olga Dotsenko with the donated teaching materials.
Control visit
The control visit on 7 December 2020 by Dimitrij Leporskij confirmed that all experiments had been completely replaced by humane teaching aids. Unfortunately, no students were present during the visit (they were on compulsory leave due to Covid-19). According to associated professor Oleg Ermishev, the virtual interactive physiology programmes are used most frequently. The students particularly like the programmes on frog anatomy and virtual physiology. The film collection from the USSR is also very useful. Here, the past helps to save lives in the future. Oleg Ermishev believes that animal testing is becoming less relevant worldwide due to Covid-19 restrictions and the growing popularity of distance learning.