News from EURL ECVAM

Among the highlights are new in vitro methods under consideration for regulatory application, a virtual reality application for Three Rs education in schools, enhancing collaboration to promote innovative non-animal approaches, and much more!

Guidance to define and promote good practices for regulatory consideration of non-standard scientific data is crucial. How do we improve the regulatory uptake of research data and what are the challenges of integrating non-standard research data into regulatory assessments? If you missed the online webinar, the outcome report and presentations are now available!

Toshiyasu ICHIOKA, Director of RIKEN Europe, the Japanese national science institute, visited EURL ECVAM at the JRC Ispra in February to give an overview of their cutting-edge research, including a focus on advanced in vitro models.

The EURL ECVAM team hosted a workshop on 7-8 March to explore how to facilitate the uptake of imaging-based in vitro methods in regulatory toxicology. Experts from regulatory authorities, industry and academia discussed issues including the reliability of advanced technologies, their transferability across sites, and how to ensure sufficient quality of the data produced. Workshop report coming soon!

In June 2023, the EPAA and JRC launched the Designathon challenge for human systemic toxicity, to crowd-source different (partial) solutions for a chemical hazard classification scheme based solely on non-animal methods. The workshop was held at the JRC on March 20-22 and gathered participants who have signed up to the challenge and who submitted their ideas prior to the workshop. The flash report from the workshop is now available!