Two projects in the field of cancer research led by Prof. Dr. Alexander Kleger, Ulm University Medical Center, as well as Dr. Vidhya Madapusi Ravi from Freiburg University Medical Center are being funded.
A team of researchers led by Prof. Donald E. Ingber from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University in Boston has developed an organ-on-a-chip model that can replicate the human cervix with a functional epithelial barrier and mucus production featuring biochemical and hormone-dependent properties similar to the living cervix.
With the help of engineered human respiratory epithelial organoids, a team from the University of Basel has succeeded in observing how the bacterium Pseudomonas aeroginosa manages to break through the lung barrier. This bacterium targets certain cells in the lungs and has developed a tactic to break through the line of defense.
Researchers at the Institute of Biomechanics at ETH Zurich have developed a 3D in vitro model to study brittle bone disease in more detail to mimic the dynamic process during early bone formation.
In a research project, researchers at the Technical University of Braunschweig have succeeded in developing human recombinant antibodies against the dangerous venom of the European black widow spider using the phage display technique. They were able to neutralize the spider venom.
Once again, the state of Rhineland-Palatinate has announced the research prize for the development of alternative and supplementary methods in accordance with the 3R principle of Russel and Burch (1959). Research institutions, companies or scientists based in Rhineland-Palatinate can apply.
A new website from the National Toxicology Program (NTP) makes it easy to search PubMed for literature on specific topics related to alternatives to animal testing (NAMs). NICEATM and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal Welfare Information Center (AWIC) have jointly developed search strategies, called "hedges," for specific topics on alternatives.
TigerShark Science is a start-up currently being founded by the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC, based in Würzburg. The scientists want to significantly reduce animal testing with their skin models.
The congress of the European Society for Alternatives to Animal Testing (EUSAAT) will take place again this year from September 18 to 20, 2024. Abstracts can still be submitted until June 14, 2024.
On June 4, Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. has announced the launch of its Virtual Control Group (VCG) initiative in partnership with Sanofi. The two companies are working together to reduce the use of animals by replacing selected control group animals with appropriate virtual control animals developed from retrospective data sets.