News on non-animal methods
FEBRUARY 02 - 06, 2026
NEWS, REPORTS & POSITION STATEMENTS
1. US EPA recommits to eliminate animal testing for chemical safety by 2035
In 2019, the ambitious targets of the US EPA to reduce animal testing by 30 % by 2025 and eliminate it by 2035 were subsequently removed by agency leadership to afford greater flexibility in implementation, citing concerns that alternative methods were not yet sufficiently advanced across all regulatory contexts. Last week, the EPA recommitted to eliminate animal testing for chemical safety by 2035, as announced by Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator.
“We are confident we will continue to find in the weeks and months ahead, new technologies, new alternative methods that allow us to reduce animal testing on something that might be required today but it may not be necessary just a few months from now,” M. Zeldin said.
2. Collaborative initiative to evaluate and advance the regulatory readiness of Liver MPS for assessing DILI
Some days ago, a Letter of Intent (LOI), coordinated by The 3Rs Collaborative (3RsC), was accepted into the FDA’s Innovative Science and Technology Approaches for New Drugs (ISTAND) Program.
This first-of-its-kind, pre-competitive, initiative aims to evaluate and advance the regulatory readiness of commercial liver microphysiological systems (MPS) for assessing clinical drug-induced liver injury (DILI). The effort brings together FDA CDER, eight commercial MPS providers, Merck as the participating end-user, NIH NICEATM, and Critical Path Institute (C‑Path), using a shared experimental protocol to assess variability, robustness, and context of use across platforms. By aligning innovation with good science and regulatory expectations, this work will generate practical guidance to support broader, responsible adoption of liver MPS in drug development. The initiative was announced in July 2025.
3. UK research institutions unite to advance non-animal technologies for veterinary research
Four of the UK’s leading research institutions have joined forces in a landmark collaboration to reduce reliance on animal testing in veterinary medicine: The Pirbright Institute, the Moredun Research Institute, the Roslin Institute, and the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), .
Supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), this initiative aims to accelerate the adoption of Non-Animal Technologies (NATs) focusing on developing complex and reliable multicellular models, such as organoids and co-cultures, for key veterinary species, including cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens, and fish. By ensuring these new models are robust enough to replace in vivo studies, the partnership represents a significant step toward a future where veterinary research can effectively combat infectious diseases while minimizing animal use.
4. Genome research is getting faster thanks to AI tool and without lab tests
Researchers at Forschungszentrum Jülich and Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf have developed a tool that could significantly transform genome research: Helixer identifies genes directly from DNA sequences – without laboratory experiments or prior knowledge about the organism.
Genome sequencing was automated more than 20 years ago, generating an enormous wealth of data. Gene annotation, on the other hand, was long considered a bottleneck in genome analysis. “For almost two decades there were no fundamentally new approaches in this field,” says Björn Usadel, Director of the Institute of Bioinformatics at Forschungszentrum Jülich and Professor at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, “Helixer shows that modern AI methods can help overcome this bottleneck.”
5. Charting exposomethics: A roadmap for the ethical foundations of the human exposome project
Exposomics is the study of humans and their interactions with pollution, disease, genetics, stress, and everything else that affects health throughout a person’s lifetime. As this field hits its stride, researchers may be asking themselves — and each other — how to study the exposome while honoring scientific ethics and fundamental human rights.
CAAT members Dr Fenna Sillé and Prof Thomas Hartung are co-authoring a new manuscript that dives into the ethics of exposomics and offers a way forward.
INTERVIEWS, NOMINATIONS & AWARDS
6. Tomorrow’s Cure Podcast: 3D bioprinting living human skin to improve wound care and testing
In the fourth season of “Tomorrow’s Cure” Podcast by the Mayo Clinic, the first episode features two pioneers at the intersection of biology and technology: Dr Saranya Wyles, a dermatologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, and Dr Adam Feinberg, principal investigator of the Regenerative Biomaterials and Therapeutics Group at Carnegie Mellon University.
Together, they explore a fast-moving frontier in regenerative medicine: 3D bioprinting living, humanized skin models built from real human cells and biologic building blocks. Dr. Wyles highlights the team’s work toward diagnostic and preclinical testing uses, with an emphasis on building an alternative to animal models. Dr. Feinberg adds that moving away from animal testing is a growing priority, and engineered human tissue models may improve prediction because animal physiology differs from humans. The shared challenge is validation: proving that the models are reproducible and reliably predictive.
Read more and watch the Podcast
TOOLS, PLATFORMS, CALLS
7. ZonMw Off Road Grant 2026
The Off Road grant budget for the 2026 round is €2,000,000. In addition, the ZonMw programme More Knowledge with Fewer Animals is making an amount of up to €600,000 available for the New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) investment module. This amount includes a contribution from the Proefdiervrij Foundation (The Dutch Society for the Replacement of Animal Testing).
Each application may request a maximum of €100,000 for a project with a duration of 12 to 18 months. The grant amount can be used for both personnel costs and costs related to materials and implementation. In addition, applicants may request a one-time optional NAMs investment module to cover the extra material costs associated with the use of NAMs (up to €30,000).
Application deadline is 24 March 2026, 2PM.
Call for Abstracts – Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) 2026 Conference – deadline on March 2nd
Check out our calls interface
INDUSTRY, BIOTECH & PARTNERSHIPS
8. L’Oréal and NETRI collaboration to advance Skin Technology
The skin serves as the body’s primary interface with the external environment; however, in many individuals this interface becomes dysregulated, resulting in chronic discomfort and heightened sensitivity. Addressing this issue requires experimental models that not only replicate the structural features of skin but also its sensory function. Reproducing the complex network underlying human sensation remains a longstanding scientific challenge, as conventional skin models fail to capture the intricate architecture at the junction of nerve endings and skin cells.
The french startup NETRI, developing the awarded “Neuron as a sensor” technology, partnered with the cosmetic giant L’Oréal to develop a human-relevant in vitro skin model using iPSC-derived sensory neurons and keratinocytes in multi-electrode array (MEA)-integrated microfluidic chips. They were able to create the first physiologically relevant, skin-on-chip model capable of emulating physiological pain, itch, and heat sensation, a study published in Lab on a Chip scientific journal.
9. MO:RE and Revvity collaborate to improve reproducibility in 3D model research
The biotech MO:RE, developing 3D in vitro models, has initiated a new collaboration with Revvity, a developer and provider of end-to-end solutions designed to help scientists, researchers, and clinicians solve the world’s greatest health challenges.
The partnership brings together our automated cell culture platform (MO:BOT) with Revvity’s assay development and detection capabilities, with the shared goal of improving standardization and reproducibility in 3D cell model-based applications, such as drug discovery and toxicity testing.
SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES & PROTOCOLS
10. Brain and neurovascular chips to model neurodegenerative diseases
Modeling neurovascular dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease using an isogenic brain-chip model
Despite intense scrutiny, the mechanisms of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) remain elusive and novel treatments that address core symptoms of dementia are limited. Using healthy and Alzheimer’s human donor cells obtained from the MayoClinic Neuroregeneration Lab and the NIH Aging Cell Repository at Coriell Science, scientists from the US FDA and
Emulate Inc. developed a microphysiological model of the human cortical neurovascular unit. Future studies using hiPSCs from multiple Alzheimer’s patients could help determine genetic predispositions to neurovascular dysfunction.
Read the publication in Springer Nature Link
Innovative Microfluidic Platform to Compartmentalize hiPSC-Derived Neural Networks
The complexity of the human nervous system, encompassing both the Central Nervous System (CNS) and the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS), presents significant challenges to researchers, particularly in understanding the communication and interaction between these interconnected components. A new study reports a microfabricated Nervous System-on-Chip integrating hiPSC-derived neurons within radial and linear microtunnel devices that enable compartmentalized culture of cortical and enteric neural networks while permitting axonal connectivity. The platform supports viable, organized, and synaptically active human neural networks, offering a promising tool for modeling nervous system interactions and investigating neurodegenerative diseases in preclinical research.
Read the publication in micromachines
11. A 3D model of the human blood – brain barrier for exploring neurovascular disease mechanisms
Mechanistic studies on Blood – brain Barrier (BBB) function have been mostly conducted in rodent and in vitro models, which recapitulate some disease features, but have limited translatability to humans and pose challenges for drug discovery.
A new study reports on a fully human induced pluripotent stem (iPS)-cell-derived, microfluidic 3D BBB model consisting of endothelial cells (ECs), mural cells and astrocytes. The model expresses typical fate markers, forms a barrier in vessel-like tubes and enables perfusion, including with human blood.
Read the publication in nature neuroscience
12. EpiVaginal: A reconstructed human vaginal epithelium model to assess irritation
Consumers often assume personal lubricants are animal-testing – free cosmetics, but in some countries — such as the U.S. — they are regulated as medical devices and require animal-based vaginal irritation testing.
A new proof-of-concept study indicates that a reconstructed human vaginal epithelium model (EpiVaginal) can rank water-based personal lubricants by vaginal irritation potential. Scientific confidence in this test method was evaluated based on an established framework that considers the method’s context of use, human biological relevance, technical characterization, data integrity and transparency, and independent review. An additional workplan further develops and qualifies the EpiVaginal for regulatory acceptance in assessing vaginal irritation of personal lubricants, and expanding its use to other products.
Read the publication in Toxicology in Vitro
