Science Advancement and Outreach

Check out our latest Science Advancement and Outreach reflection! Donya Mand, MD explores how the FDA’s decision not to approve Lykos Therapeutics' #MDMA therapy for #PTSD, is sparking a reassessment of #psychedelic research methods, including the reliance on animal models.?https://lnkd.in/gQzV_ffy

New opportunity for a PhD fellow interested in working with human organoids. Check out the original post for more information. ?

In the Journal of Psychopharmacology, a publication of Sage, Aurélie Lereclus Julien Welzel, Raoul Belzeaux, Théo?Korchia, Frédéric Dayan, Olivier Blin, Sylvain B., and Romain?Guilhaumou explore?how population pharmacokinetics (popPK) models, used in Model-Informed Precision Dosing (MIPD), can improve treatments for psychiatric diseases. The use of meta-modelling methods may enhance the predictive performance of popPK models by incorporating key covariates. This study highlights the potential of meta-models in MIPD, paving the way for better patient outcomes through personalized dosing strategies. Congratulations to the authors on this recent publication, this is a great use of innovative, animal-free methods to optimize treatment options for psychiatric disorders. https://lnkd.in/g_jEituR #psychiatry #metamodelling #mipd #popPK #NAMs

"I was shocked to discover that most of our ‘knowledge’ about the human brain came from another species: the mouse. This struck me as pretty strange. After all, it was not the mouse brain that put us on the Moon or decoded the human genome." Dr. Alysson Muotri of UC San Diego opens up to #BrainMedicine about how dissecting mouse brains gave him nightmares. He gained the courage to ask his colleagues, "what if the diseases we want to cure and the answers we want will not be found in the mouse brain?" https://lnkd.in/eF7emB_a See the full interview here: https://lnkd.in/eF7wuWCY

The National Institutes of Health Common Fund's #ComplementARIE program will be releasing a #fundingcall for applications to help create a central #NAMs data hub that is searchable, adheres to standards and FAIR principles, and includes dissemination and outreach tools. ? https://lnkd.in/e544RFQh #funding #researchfunding #grantcall

Today is #TrigeminalNeuralgia Awareness Day ?? As one might guess, animal experiments performed in an attempt to understand human #facialpain involve subjecting animals to deliberate, often unrelieved, pain. Critically, because animals cannot self-report the nature or extent of their pain, experimenters are unable to determine if what they're modeling is truly #neuropathicpain, rather than inflammatory pain, which would be studied & treated differently. But human-relevant, non-animal models exist for studying neuralgia. In 1999, Heather Raymon, PhD & colleagues developed an immortalized human dorsal root ganglion cell line that was able to differentiate into sensory neurons for the study of neuropathic pain. https://lnkd.in/eD2pSxGT In 2021, Eder Gambeta & colleagues at the University of Calgary used human cells to discover a genetic mutation associated with the development of #trigeminalneuralgia: https://lnkd.in/ekAedZw6 Using serum from individuals with #trigeminalneuralgia & healthy controls, researchers discovered specific miRNA related to the occurrence and development of the condition: https://lnkd.in/eYHU3hQJ Individuals living with #trigeminalneuralgia understand pain. To #EndTN, we don't need to create more pain in the world by inflicting it on animals. We need ethical, human biology-based research. PETA.org/RMD. #TNAwarenessDay #TNAwareness #TrigeminalNeuralgiaAwarenessDay

Attention #funders ?? The Ensuring Value in Research (#EViR) preclinical working group would like to gauge your interest in exploring how the EViR principles can be applied to #preclinical research. Give them a quick notification of your interest here: https://lnkd.in/e-hjC2Ft To learn more about the EViR principles, visit evir.org/our-principles. #evidencebasedresearch #evidencebased #researchonresearch #researchfunder #fundersforum

New prize challenge from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) ??? Five prizes of $10k each will be awarded to participants who have designed & implemented innovative #translationalscience education & training.?Applications are open! The first round will be judged in June.?? https://lnkd.in/e65gt7E8? #researchprize #translationalresearch #NAMs

October is #BreastCancerAwarenessMonth! It's a great time to recognize the progress that could be made by shifting funding away from animal models of #breastcancer & toward human-relevant approaches, as well as #detection, #prevention, & access to care. For #cancer more broadly, >9 out of 10 cancer drugs fail in clinical trials, despite showing promise in animal models. Using other animals as stand-ins for humans has long misled researchers in their quest for the right cancer target. Read more: https://lnkd.in/ekS-buvC ? ?? In recent decades, innovative techniques, such as tumor #organoids & #insilico tools, have been shown to better recapitulate the pathophysiological features of breast cancer #tumorigenesis in humans. Let's take a look at some of the most recent work in this area ?? The MicroOrgano-Lab, including first-author Ibra Maulana, described their novel breast cancer-on-a-chip model in July, demonstrating its utility & accuracy in #celltherapy testing: https://lnkd.in/eW_vZc7H At Manchester Breast Centre, Hannah Harrison & team developed a novel #patientderived 3D breast cancer #explant model using all #animalfree reagents: https://lnkd.in/etuDfm7c Using breast cancer tissue from human patients, Antonella Raffo Romero, Pr. Michel Salzet, Marie Duhamel & University of Lille 1 Sciences and Technology colleagues developed three optimized methods for co-culturing human macrophages with #tumoroids: https://lnkd.in/e-wcuihw In a study published in August, Elo?se M. Grasset, Won Jin Ho, & colleagues at The Johns Hopkins University mapped the human breast tumor #microenvironment to discover which nearby cells were most likely to metastasize: https://lnkd.in/e2PmgiJJ In the detection space, a team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, led by Canan Dagdeviren, developed a #wearable ultrasound device that can be integrated into a bra!?https://lnkd.in/eCQBXaa3 This is just a glimpse of the great work being done to improve #breastcancerresearch. Further efforts, such as increasing funding for breast cancer #NAMs and discontinuing poor animal models, will be needed to achieve better #translation. PETA.org/RMD

A recent review in the BMC Journal of Translational Medicine discusses developments in human tumor organoid co-culture techniques for advancing healthcare in cancer research. “The future scope of organoid technology is poised to enhance the accuracy of disease models, advance precision medicine, and drug development, facilitate the development of regenerative medicine and organ regeneration, address animal study-related ethical concerns, and extend its applications to a broader range of diseases.” https://lnkd.in/gPsu6AMA? ?