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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
TPI.tv videos
InnovationPolicyBeginner
TPI.tv: improving science through animal-free innovations and research
Introducing TPI.tv : a video platform by experts striving to improve science through animal-free innovations and research.
TPI.tv videos
Five simple tricks for making your own video for TPI.tv
This video shows you how to make a video yourself. It's really not that difficult! See also the submission page (https://tpi.tv/submit-a-video) for additional information.
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.
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).
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
In vitroOrgan-on-Chip
From 2D hiPSC culture to developing a 3D vessel-on-chip
Theano Tsikari is a 2nd year PhD student at the Orlova group at LUMC. As part of the LymphChip consortium, her project focuses on the development of immunocompetent organ-on-chip models of the cardiovascular system, and especially the integration of tissue-resident macrophages and lymphatic vasculature using human induced pluripotent stem cells. In this video, you can follow her as she presents you the backbone of her project, a 3D hiPSC-derived vessel-on-chip model, that has been previously developed in the Orlova group and can be employed for the generation of advanced in vitro models of vascular diseases.
Innovation examples
In vitroOrgan-on-Chip
Unified organoid system for modeling heart and kidney interaction on-a-chip
Beatrice Gabbin is a PhD candidate at the Anatomy and Embryology Department of the Leiden University Medical Center. Her project is shared with the Nephrology Department and focusses on the study of the cardiorenal axis in vitro. Both heart and kidneys have vital functions in the human body and reciprocally influence each other’s behavior: pathological changes in one can damage the other. There are already multiple independent in vitro (human) models of heart and kidney, but none have so far captured their dynamic crosstalk. The aim of the project is therefore to develop a microfluidic system which can be used to study heart and kidney interaction in vitro. For this purpose, cardiac microtissues and kidney organoids derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells are generated and loaded onto a 3D perfusion chip for their dynamic co-culture. This system enables the study the cardiac and kidney interaction with a high level of control. The validation of a unified organoid system will enable the investigation of diseases involving the two organs and their potential treatments. Read more via the link in the video and https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtbio.2023.100818.