The Experimental Endoscopy, Development and Training (EEET) working group at Tübingen University Hospital, headed by Dr. Dörte Wichmann, is developing innovative models that accurately reflect human anatomy without using animal materials.

Rare diseases: Animal-free research

Thursday, 29 February 2024 11:34

On the occasion of today's Rare Disease Day, the Federal Association of People for Animal Rights emphasizes the importance of research into these diseases using new, non-animal methods (NAMs).

Scientists from the Institute of Quantitative Biomedicine at the University of Zurich have developed an innovative cell culture model with nerve cells to investigate a dysregulated protein in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

Using patient blood, a team of researchers from Dublin has succeeded in identifying a cause of the consequences of coronavirus infection known as long COVID and brain fog.

The German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech) advises politicians and society on issues relating to the future of technology science and technology policy. In a recent paper "Lost in Translation?" - Ansätze zur Entfesselung gesellschaftlicher und ökonomischer Potenziale der Biotechnologie, the authors recommend 3D bioprinting as a long-term replacement for animal testing.

As the British animal rights organization RSPCA reports on LinkedIn, the Minister for Science, Research and Innovation, Andrew Griffith, has announced in the British Parliament that the government intends to publish a new plan by the summer that aims to accelerate the development, validation and application of technologies and methods to reduce animal testing.

Emma Hurst, Member of the Australian Parliament, has introduced a bill to amend the Animal Research Act 2023 into Parliament. The aim is to ban the severely stressful forced swim tests as well as smoke inhalation tests on rodents. The decisions have already had an impact on research in many Australian institutions. For instance, the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia have banned researchers from using the forced swimming test.

This year, the state of Baden-Württemberg is once again supporting the development of alternative and complementary methods to animal testing.

In order to create a customized form of cartilage tissue, which has always been difficult to date, scientists at Technical University Vienna are pursuing a new approach using a precision 3D printing process.

Using human cells from a 3D printer, a team of researchers from the US, Singapore and China have created tissue that looks and functions like a piece of brain.

Page 1 of 86