News

This year's competition consists of three Challenges identified jointly by the NC3Rs and Sponsors.

Researchers at Durham University have developed a semi-automated ‘continual trials’ approach for spontaneous object recognition tasks, in which an animal can complete many trials in a single session. This leads to more reliable behavioural data, more sensitive measures of performance and a reduction in the number of animals required to give the same statistical power.

Researchers at the University of Birmingham have developed a low cost, ex vivo porcine corneal model to rapidly assess ocular drug penetration and absorption through the cornea. The assay uses tissue that is surplus to the food industry, replacing the in vivo models and better predicting the outcome in the human eye, in comparison to rabbit and rodent models.

The liver plays an important role in drug metabolism and is susceptible to injury, making drug-induced hepatoxicity a leading cause of attrition during preclinical and clinical drug development. Current in vivo and in vitro models used to assess drug-induced hepatotoxicity and drug metabolism do not always accurately predict human responses, leading to questions about the utility of these models and calls for more predictive tools based on human biology.

This year's competition consists of three Challenges identified jointly by the NC3Rs and Sponsors.

The LocoWhisk arena simultaneously measures locomotion and whisker movements, providing quantitative measures of rodent behaviour for basic research or drug discovery. The improved quality and quantity of data that can be generated in each animal using the LocoWhisk arena means far fewer animals are needed to achieve statistical significance, when compared to traditional open field and gait analysis studies.

Seven teams have been awarded funding in the 2017 CRACK IT Challenge competition, which brings together industry, academia and SMEs to develop marketable products or improve business processes that will have a significant 3Rs impact.

Researchers from the University of Oxford have created a new approach to reduce the use of thousands of animals used annually for assessing the developmental and reproductive toxicity (DART) potential of new chemicals. The CombiDART platform combines two non-vertebrate model systems (the nematode C. elegans and the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum) to rapidly assess compounds for DART, whilst also providing information on mechanism of action.