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The Neuroinformatics lab at Newcastle University has developed Vertex, a computational model of the mammalian brain that can reproduce activity observed in ex vivo tissue. This model can be used to estimate the effect of intervention on the activity in different cortical layers and could replace some animal use during basic research, the early stages of medical device development or pharmacological drug discovery.

The NC3Rs is now inviting submissions from Sponsors for new CRACK IT Challenges for the 2018 competition.

Traditionally, researchers have two options for procuring tissue/cells from rats and mice:

1. Researchers can order animals from breeders and maintain colonies at their own facilities.  This is expensive, time consuming, and results in a large amount of wasted tissue as most  animals are used to source a single tissue type.

2. Researchers can order commercially available cryopreserved cells. These cells lack traceability and are an inferior product to fresh tissues because they are exposed to harsh freeze/thaw cycles resulting in reduced cell viability.

Experimental tests must be performed to evaluate the skin/eye irritation potential of a substance. Currently, this means an in vitro test first, but if inconclusive it may be followed by OECD 404 and OECD 405 in vivo studies, for skin and eye irritation, respectively. These studies are invasive and can utilise more than 250 rabbits per year. Alternative approaches to in vivo testing have been developed, but until now QSARs have not been completely successful for predicting skin/eye irritation.

Assessment of animal welfare is essential, not only to meet legislative requirements for review of severity but also to identify areas where the experience of an animal can be improved in terms of environment or by refinement of experimental techniques, leading to less variable data from the use of less stressed animals. Until now, this has been a largely qualitative process relying on researchers, veterinarians and animal technicians making and recording observations of welfare throughout the animals’ lifetime experience.

The 2017 CRACK IT Challenges were launched on 7 September at an event in central London where Challenge Sponsors presented their Challenges to potential applicants. The Sponsor presentations and Challenge-specific Q&A documents can be accessed through the links below.

There are three 2017 Challenges:

New automated home cage monitoring system for rats allows the behaviour of individual rats to be monitored and analysed whilst socially housed in their home cages.

Two teams have each been awarded £1million of funding to deliver Phase 2 of the 2016 CRACK IT Challenges.

CRACK IT Challenges is a competition funded by the NC3Rs that brings together large industries, academia and SMEs to facilitate new business processes and product development that will have a significant impact on the use of animals in research.

The funding has been awarded to solve two Challenges: