Dr Alan Harper and NC3Rs-BHF PhD student Jacob Ranjbar have developed an artificial human blood vessel to study blood clotting in vitro and replace the use of mice in thrombosis research. They have successfully disseminated the model to the thrombosis community, including for new applications within cardiovascular research.
Dr Frank McCaughan and student, Dr Phil Barry, miniaturised a human cell-based model of early-stage lung cancer enabling the assay to replace some drug screening experiments using mice.
Professor Cathy Merry has developed synthetic hydrogels that support 3D culture for multiple cell types and used NC3Rs funding to support their application across multiple scientific disciplines.
Dr Paola Campagnolo has used NC3Rs funding from a Project grant and a Skills and Knowledge Transfer award to develop an ex vivo model of the epicardium to replace the use of mice for high throughput screening of cardiac therapies in academia and industry.
