IC-3Rs News

RE-Place organises a series of Educational Webinars which aims to promote the use and development of New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) by putting the existing knowledge in the spotlight. The second session will take place on the 14^th of September from 4 to 5 pm CET via Webex and will zoom in on the development and optimisation of cellular models.

First, Léa Hiéronimus of the UCL will present his work titled 'From a 3D-model of particle-induced granuloma-like structure to a simple 2D-macrophage bioassay predicting granulomagenic and fibrotic activity of inhaled particles'. This presentation will be followed by Amar van Laar (UGent) who will discuss his work on the ‘Metabolism and Health Effects of Rare Sugars in a CACO-2/HepG2 Coculture Model’. 

All webinars are free of charge, but registration is mandatory

The British national 3Rs centre NC3Rs presents RIVER (Reporting In Vitro Experiments Responsibly), a set of six recommendations specifically tailored to reporting in vitro studies such that manuscripts describe the minimum information necessary for a reader to assess the methodological rigour and reliability of the study.

Publications reporting in vitro experiments often lack basic details that prevent readers from repeating the experiments described or assessing whether the results are reliable. This prevents the experiments adding to the knowledge base and can lead to unnecessary subsequent studies. To address this, an international working group has been convened to develop reporting standards, drawing from its expertise in research funding and publishing, methodology and statistics, and research in academic, regulatory and industry settings. 

On Monday, March 27, 2023, IC-3Rs participated in an interesting study day on welfare in laboratory animals and non-animal methods. Fifteen different speakers gave short presentations on the goals of the scientific organizations they are affiliated with or on their research using non-animal methods. Read the report of the event here: in dutch or in french.

The programme of the Joint 3R Symposium is available on the event website. The Symposium brings together (inter)national experts who will acquaint you with the most advanced 3R-alternative methods in various biomedical research disciplines. The organisation of the Joint 3R Symposium hopes for your numerous attendance and warmly welcomes you on 19, 20 and 21 September. Registrations for the event are currently open on the website. Don't forget to submit your abstract by 15 July!

In this interesting video, Unilever's Safety & Environmental Assurance Centre explains the concept of Next Generation Risk Assessment and offers a behind-the-scenes look at its research using in vitro, in silico and in chemico methods. 

In line with Directive 2010/63/EU, as amended by Regulation (EU) 2019/1010, the Commission will make publicly available EU level statistical information on the use of animals for scientific purposes, collected by the Member States and submitted to the Commission on an annual basis. In addition to giving open access to these data through the ALURES Statistical EU database, the Commission provides an annual summary report of the data submitted by Member States.

A new manuscript about the RE-Place project has just been published in the Research topic ‘3Rs - Strategies for Reduction and Refinement of Animal Studies’ in Predictive Toxicology. This manuscript describes the evolution of the project, the development of the online tool to collect specific information on the use of NAMs in a fast and consistent manner and the current status of the open access database in Belgium.

The RE-Place project is collecting all available expertise on the use of alternative methods to animal testing in Belgium. The project is funded by the Flemish and Brussels government and aims to provide a reliable overview of the different NAMs that are currently used in the life sciences. It also provides the contact details of experts and research centres where these techniques can be learned. Submit your expertise now via the RE-Place website

The aim of this prize is to highlight the versatility and superiority of animal-free antibodies and encourage their acceptance and use for research and therapeutic purposes.