F3OCI white paper 2025, Position Paper on The European Innovation Act, IHI VICT3R project, CAAT early-career researchers survey, miBrain and more
News on non-animal methods
NOVEMBER 17 - 21, 2025NEWS, REPORTS & POSITION STATEMENTS
1. F3OCI white paper 2025
The French Organoids and Organs-on-a-Chip Sector (F3OCI), co-piloted by BioValley France and NETRI for France Biotech, published its 2025 White Paper : an ambitious roadmap for structuring this strategic French sector serving human, animal, and environmental health.
This key document defines 9 strategic priorities to make France a European and global leader in alternative methods and provides a comprehensive overview of the 133 identified French projects and the public and private stakeholders involved in the research, development, and production of organoids and organs-on-a-chip.This document is a call to action. It marks a decisive step toward transforming vast potential into tangible benefits for human, animal, and environmental health.
Download the report (FR)
2. OECD Guidance Document on the Generation, Reporting and Use of Research Data for Regulatory Assessments
The focus of the document is on hazard, exposure and risk assessment data generated outside formal regulatory testing frameworks, and the guidance promotes harmonised, structured approaches to support the use of scientifically robust, reliable and relevant information for decision-making across jurisdictions and policy areas.
The guidance includes practical considerations and specific recommendations for key stakeholder groups, including funders, researchers, publishers, repository managers, assessors and risk managers. Additional sections of the document offer tools, references and case studies to support stakeholders in implementing the guidance.
Read the OECD guidance document
3. EFPIA and Vaccines Europe call for a bold and innovation-friendly EU Biotech Act
With Europe’s share of global pharmaceutical investment and clinical trials declining, and other regions rapidly advancing, urgent action is needed to keep innovation and high-value R&D in Europe. The Biotech Act can reverse this trend and make the EU the fastest, most predictable and most innovation-friendly region for biotechnology.
EFPIA and Vaccines Europe (VE) urge coordinated action to boost Europe’s competitiveness, strengthen its biotech ecosystem and attract investment from world-leading pharmaceutical innovators. EFPIA Director General Nathalie Moll said : “Innovation depends on an ecosystem built on scientific excellence, predictable regulation, and competitive investment conditions. The Biotech Act offers a defining moment for Europe to reclaim leadership in life sciences, revitalise its innovation ecosystem, and ensure that future generations of patients benefit from the discoveries and technologies developed here”.
4. Position Paper by ESFRI on The European Innovation Act
The position paper outlines European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI)’s views on key aspects of the European Innovation Act (EIA), focusing on ensuring that the opportunities that European Research and Technology Infrastructures (RIs) present for the European competitiveness and technology development are adequately reflected in the EIA.
The report proposed several recommendations like promoting technological transfers, co-development initiatives, and broader collaborations with industry and SMEs. Furthermore, the report on Cooperation of ESFRI RIs with Industry, through surveys conducted with industry, identified lack of financial resources, lack of staff on the company side and legal issues as the main barriers to cooperation with RIs.
5. IHI VICT3R project : Reducing the use of animals with virtual control groups
Despite rapid advances in human-relevant assay technologies and other innovative in vitro and in silico approaches, the safety assessment of chemicals and pharmaceutical drugs continues to heavily rely on animal testing, in part due to slow regulatory adaptation and a lack of transitional strategies.
A new paper highlights the need for pragmatic transitional initiatives that reduce animal use while preserving scientific rigor and regulatory confidence by focusing on the Innovative Health Initiative VICT3R project. The VICT3R project focuses on refining and implementing the VCG (Virtual Control Groups) methodology, particularly in the standardization, curation and adequate matching of historical control data, as well as regulatory qualification.
INTERVIEWS, NOMINATIONS & AWARDS
6. The Path to Founding a Human-Focused Research Lab
A new era in biomedical research is taking shape as the scientific community increasingly shifts towards human-specific research. Central to this transformation are the individuals and groups actively pursuing the development and adoption of more effective and ethical approaches. To gain a better understanding of what it takes to make this shift, the Centre for Human Specific Research asks leading experts to share their story.
In this article, Dr Dania Movia, Assistant Professor in Biomedical & Health Services at the Department of Biology, Maynooth University, provides insights into her journey to found and lead the Humane Biomedical Research Group – Ireland’s first wet lab dedicated to human-focused respiratory research.
7. BBC Radio 4’s Inside Science episode on UK Government alternatives plan
The UK government recently set out its vision for a world where the use of animals in science is eliminated in all but exceptional circumstances.
BBC Inside Science presenter Tom Whipple was joined by Dr Chris Powell, Director of Cambridge BioPharma Consultants Ltd. and honorary visiting scientist at Cambridge University and Dr Natalie Burden, head of New Approach Methodologies at the NC3Rs to discuss government alternatives strategy and the opportunities it creates for UK science.
Listen to the BBC Inside Science episode
8. NC3Rs grant holders receive funding in MRC call
The NC3Rs has recently partnered with the UKRI MRC, Wellcome and Innovate UK on a funding call to develop human in vitro models of complex disease. While the call primarily focused on human health benefits, the NC3Rs expertise ensured that the animal replacement potential of the work was considered as part of the grant assessment process.
Five interdisciplinary teams were awarded a total of £15.9M with projects focusing on the development of in vitro models of the liver, brain, blood vessels, cancer and pain. The teams include previous NC3Rs award holders, with one of the projects led by Amir Ghaemmaghami and Nick Hannan at the University of Nottingham building on a platform developed with NC3Rs Project grant funding.
TOOLS, PLATFORMS, CALLS
9. Calling early-career researchers in NAMs
The Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT)’s Education Program, with Utrecht University, Radboud University, and Safer Medicines Trust, has launched a 15 – 20-minute survey to learn about early-career researchers’ experiences and challenges.
The inputs will help identify real barriers, develop tailored training and mentoring, strengthen policy and create new opportunities to support early-career researchers advancing humane, innovative science.
Pro Anima has integrated an up-to-date list of Calls on its NAMs Interface
Check out our calls interface
INDUSTRY, BIOTECH & PARTNERSHIPS
10. First sequence-based AI model translating personal genetic variations into tissue-specific activity patterns at scale
Developed by Biohub researchers, VariantFormer is the first sequence-based AI model to directly translate personal genetic variations into tissue-specific activity patterns at scale. VariantFormer also implicitly captures the genetic influence of the epigenome on gene expression. VariantFormer uses an end-to-end approach to predict gene expression profiles directly from a person’s DNA sequence. This approach offers a powerful new method for exploring how individual’s distinctive genetic makeup impacts their health.
VariantFormer is an important step in meeting Biohub’s grand challenge of building an AI-based virtual cell model, by providing a new platform that captures the complex genetic interactions that drive cells’ behavior. On a larger scale, it is a first step in a long journey toward using predictive models to study, treat and prevent even the most elusive genetic drivers of disease.
SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES & PROTOCOLS
11. Engineered human iPSCs reveal altered podocytogenesis in congenital heart disease
Clinical observations of patients with congenital heart disease carrying SMAD2 genetic variants revealed correlations with multi-organ impairments at the developmental and functional levels. Many patients with congenital heart disease present with glomerulosclerosis, periglomerular fibrosis and albuminuria. It remains largely unknown whether SMAD2 variants associated with congenital heart disease can directly alter kidney cell fate, tissue patterning and organ-level function.
A recent study investigated the role of pathogenic SMAD2 variants in podocytogenesis, nephrogenic cell lineage specification and glomerular filtration barrier function using a combination of CRISPR-based disease modelling, stem cell and microfluidic organ-on-a-chip technologies. This study implicates chronic heart disease-associated SMAD2 mutations in kidney tissue malformation that might inform targeted regenerative therapies.
Read the study in Nature Biomedical Engineering
12. miBrain : First human 3D brain platform to integrate six major cell types in a single culture
To address the lack of human cell-based models incorporating all six of the major brain cell types together, which are critically needed to mimic features of brain pathobiology and accelerate mechanistic understanding and therapeutic testing, researchers have developed, characterized, and harnessed a patient-specific preclinical brain model composed of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neurons, microglia, oligodendroglia, astrocytes, pericytes, and brain microvascular endothelial cells.
This multicellular integrated system (miBrain) recapitulates in vivo–like hallmarks inclusive of neuronal activity, functional connectivity, barrier function, myelin-producing oligodendrocyte engagement with neurons, multicellular interactions, and transcriptomic profiles. Researchers also implemented the model to study Alzheimer’s Disease pathologies associated with APOE4 genetic risk. “Its highly modular design sets the miBrain apart, offering precise control over cellular inputs, genetic backgrounds, and sensors — useful features for applications such as disease modeling and drug testing,” said co-first author Alice Stanton.
