An international prize has been awarded for British research that could prevent many thousands of animals suffering in laboratories.
Scientists in Cambridge have grown "mini-livers" from mouse stem cells that can be used for testing new liver disease treatments.
The technique could reduce the number of animals needed to test 1,000 drug compounds by up to 50,000.
The £18,000 prize was awarded by the UK's NC3Rs centre that promotes advances in the 3Rs - the replacement, refinement and reduction of animals in research research.
The team has further refined the technique using liver cells from rats and dogs, and is now looking at expanding the process to human cells.