Health
Innovation examples
HealthIn vitro
Cultured human skin for burn research
Burns are often accompanied by a dysregulated immune response, which can lead to systemic inflammation, impaired immunity, and excessive scarring. A deeper understanding of the mechanisms behind burns—where wound healing and inflammatory reactions are severely disrupted—holds the key to improving patient outcomes. Patrick Mulder, a postdoctoral researcher at the Burn Research Lab in Beverwijk, the Netherlands, works with his colleagues to develop animal-free skin models based on human cells and patient-derived tissues. Using these innovative, human-relevant models, he aims to provide greater insight into the body’s response to burns and studies the effects of existing and new treatments on wound healing.
Click on the info button for the full version of the video.
Innovation examples
HealthIn vitroOrgan-on-Chip
An iPSC-derived blood-brain barrier to model neurodegeneration
The blood-brain barrier is a layer of cells that protects our brain from harmful compounds. However, due to this tight barrier, many drugs to treat neurological diseases cannot enter the brain either.
There are currently no good models to test these types of drugs. Henrique Nogueira Pinto is a PhD candidate at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. He is developing a blood-brain barrier model coupled to mini-brains. With this model, he aims to more reliably test how drugs can be transported over the blood-brain barrier and what their effect on the brain is.
Click on the info button for the full version of the video. Click here (https://fluidsbarrierscns.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12987-022-00316-0#Sec3) for a review of the current status of in vitro models for the blood-brain barrier.
Innovation examples
HealthIn vitro
Organoids for studying (personalised) antiviral treatments
Giulia is a scientist in clinical virology with a PhD from OrganoVIR Labs at Amsterdam UMC. Her research aims to improve antiviral testing using human organoids—tiny, lab-grown tissues that mimic real human organs. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the urgent need for effective antiviral treatments, as traditional pre-clinical testing on animal models has only a 5% success rate in clinical trials. By utilising human organoids, Giulia enhances the accuracy of antiviral research. She specializes in infecting organoids from the airway, gut, and brain with various patient-derived viruses, allowing for more realistic modelling of viral infections. Her work also sets the stage for personalised medicine in the context of viral infections. By isolating viruses and stem cells from patients suffering from severe infections, she can test tailored treatments that are more likely to succeed. With this, she aims to revolutionise antiviral testing and improve treatment outcomes for patients.
Click on the info button for the full version of the video.
Projects and initiatives
HealthIn vitro
CONNECT
Many people worldwide suffer from brain diseases. These diseases are often hard or even impossible to treat. One of the reasons for this that potentially beneficial drugs cannot pass through the blood-brain barrier. The CONNECT project aims to develop a blood-brain barrier model and connect this to a brain model, all derived from cells. With this advanced in vitro test system, researchers aim to be able to study how drugs can be transferred more effectively and safely over the blood-brain barrier in an animal-free and human-relevant manner.
Expert interviews
HealthIn vitroOrgan-on-Chip
Tony Kiuru (UPM Biomedicals)
Tony Kiuru discusses GrowDex, which is an animal free, ready to use hydrogel that mimics the extracellular matrix (ECM) and supports cell growth and differentiation with consistent results. Bridging the gap between in vitro and in vivo studies GrowDex can be used for 3D cell culture for spheroid and /organoids, in personalised medicine, regenerative medicine, organ-on-a-chip models, drug release studies, 3D printing and much more. GrowDex hydrogel is manufactured according to ISO13485. You can find more information about GrowDex at https://www.upmbiomedicals.com/siteassets/documents/growdex-brochure-2018.pdf and https://www.linkedin.com/company/growdex/ . General email address: biomedicals@upm.com.
Questions
HelpathonsHealth
Helpathon #11 – Can you help Terry?
Terry Vrijenhoek (UMC Utrecht) is a geneticist and explores the societal impact of gene therapy. In this Helpathon the focus is on Alzheimers, for which there is no cure but there is a promising RNA-based therapy in the pipeline. Can you help Terry with designing scenarios for responsible development for gene therapy for Alzheimer disease in terms of benefits, risks, budgets and animal models? More information can be found here (https://www.helpathonhotel.org/coming-up).
Questions
HelpathonsHealth
Helpathon #11 – Can you help Francesca?
Francesca Stillitano (UMC Utrecht) is a geneticist and an Assistant Professor at the Department of Cardiology. Francesca is currently working with mice models and with human tissue-based in vitro models to develop and test new gene therapies for a rare cardiomyopathy. Can you help Francesca with developing gene therapies for curing inherited cardiomyopathies without the use of animal models? More information can be found here (https://www.helpathonhotel.org/coming-up).
Projects and initiatives
HealthInnovationPolicy
EURL ECVAM
The EU Reference Laboratory for alternatives to animal testing (EURL ECVAM) promotes and facilitates the use of non-animal methods in testing and research. It validates, disseminates and shares knowledge on the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement of animal experiments). In this video, Raffaella Corvi explains what EURL ECVAM does in the field of safety testing of chemicals while reducing laboratory animal testing.
Watch the accessible version of the video here (https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-230374).
©European Union, 2021
Innovation examples
HealthIn vitroOrgan-on-Chip
Stem cell derived Vessels-on-Chip to study brain disorders
Dennis Nahon is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anatomy and Embryology at the Leiden University Medical Center. In his research, under supervision of Dr. Valeria Orlova (https://www.orlovalab.com/) and Prof. Dr. Christine Mummery, he aims to mimic a blood vessel in the brain by combining different stem cell derived cell types, in a 3D Vessel-on-Chip model. Here, an example of these in vitro blood vessels is shown in which certain brain cells known as astrocytes (in white) interact with the blood vessels (in red). This model paves the way for investigating brain vessels outside the human body, while reducing the need for animal models.
Innovation examples
HealthIn vitroOrgan-on-Chip
Modelling COVID-19-induced thrombosis using blood-perfused Vessels-on-Chips
A subset of hospitalized COVID-19 patients develops severe symptoms like microthrombosis and multiple organ-failure, worsening survival rates. The most inner layer of cells of a blood vessel, the endothelial cells, play a central role in the development of these complications. Their dysfunction can be replicated in advanced cell culture models like our blood-perfused Vessel-on-Chip to further understand disease mechanisms. In this short highlight, Huub Weener from the University of Twente shows how the technique works and what these models contribute to our knowledge of COVID-19.
Projects and initiatives
HealthToxicologyInnovationIn vitro
Cells4Thought: using iPSCs for neurodevelopmental health
The prevalence of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), including cognitive impairments, is increasing worldwide with great impact on daily life quality. There is evidence that exposure to chemicals may contribute to the incidence of NDD. However, a causal link is lacking. Towards this goal, a human-relevant in vitro model system mimicking parts of brain development, such as neuronal network functioning, could be used for mechanistic research on how gene-environment interactions contribute to the development of NDD. This is going to be studied in the project Cells4Thought, using induced pluripotent stem cells form different individuals to study the effect of chemicals on neuronal differentiation.
Projects and initiatives
HealthInnovationPolicyBeginner
We all want a safer world for humanity, animals and the environment: Transition Animal-free Innovation
Why is the transition to animal-free research so important? What are animal-free models? How does TPI (Transition Animal-Free Innovation) encourage their development and use? And who are we working with to make this happen? We explain this in our animation.
More and more animal-free tests and research methods are becoming available, but not all research questions or safety tests can be answered in this way yet. In addition, the validation, qualification and acceptance of non-animal innovations still lags behind. Therefore, the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) stimulates the development and application of animal-free innovations. This is done with the partner programme Transition Animal-free Innovation (TPI).