New contributions to the 3Rs and alternatives to animal testing
Main themes included a focus on the principles of the 3Rs (replace, reduce, refine the use of animals in research), looking in particular at alternative methods and the new national 3Rs Competence Centre (3RCC) founded in March of this year.
Animal-free approaches were discussed in areas like toxicologic testing, human lung cultures, alternatives to fetal bovine serum, recombinant antibodies, in vitro systems for testing antifibrotic agents, and microphysiological systems in applied research (a.k.a. organs-on-a-chip systems). Networking and communication were at the core of this event, as they are often the barriers to advance non-animal science. Beside the exchange of knowledge, experience and methods between participants, the conference also provided insight into networking with 3R competence centres in other countries.
All speakers’ papers of the conference are available for consultation here. Read the report of the conference here.