CRACK IT Solutions are currently looking for collaborators for 3 new innovations:
1. A human micro-liver system for reliable safety and efficacy testing
Researchers at the University of Naples seek partners to further develop and validate a novel human liver-ona-chip platform to investigate the safety and efficacy of chemicals and drugs.
What could the Solution be used for?
Composed of 3D human hepatocyte-like engineered microtissues dynamically cultured in a microfluidic device, the liver-on-a-chip model could be applied as an effective tool to test the safety (drug-induced hepatotoxicity) and efficacy of new pharmaceutical compounds, nonpharmaceutical chemicals and nutraceuticals.
There is potential to also co-culture the liver microtissues with several non-parenchymal liver cells (e.g. Kupffer cells, stellate cells or sinusoidal endothelial cells) separately, or in direct cell-cell contact, to mimic the endothelial-parenchymal interface of liver sinusoid
Need for collaboration
Industrial partnerships are sought to further develop/ characterise and validate the device to test new molecules or drugs. Partners should be able to provide advice, compounds, and preclinical and clinical datasets with which to validate the model for hepatotoxicity and efficacy screening. Partnerships are also sought with food companies to provide nutraceuticals to test in the system.
3Rs impact assessment
Current in vivo hepatoxicity studies typically evaluate liver histopathology and measure clinical chemistry markers. These studies use large numbers of animals, are low throughput, and are not always predictive of effects in humans. Identifying hepatotoxic compounds earlier in development would significantly reduce the number of compounds progressing to animal studies.
For more information or to contact the Solution provider: https://crackit.org.uk/human-micro-liver-system-reliable-safety-and-effi...
2. Developing an automated test of recognition memory in rodents
Researchers at Durham University seek collaborators to further develop and validate their semi-automated ‘continual trials’ apparatus for spontaneous object recognition tasks.
What could the Solution be used for?
The continual trials apparatus enables an animal to complete numerous trials in a single session (rather than the typical single trial) and for multiple trials to be run simultaneously. Combined with a camera and prototype behaviour scoring app, testing sessions can be scored faster than standard methodologies. This technology can be used to determine behavioural phenotypes of rodent models and assess the effects of interventions hypothesised to influence memory function.
Need for collaboration
Partnership is sought with users who can help further develop and validate the apparatus in the following ways:
- Assessing the feasibility of a single experimenter running multiple apparatuses simultaneously
- Maximising the data that can be extracted from the recorded behaviour
- Further validation of the technology in different use settings
- Providing advice and feedback about the behavioural scoring app
3Rs impact assessment
This apparatus makes performance more reliable, reducing by up to half the number of animals required to achieve statistical significance in studies of spontaneous recognition. The researchers have reduced the number of animals used in their research group by approximately 100 animals in the last three years. The apparatus also provides a marked refinement, as animals do not undergo handling between or within trials.
For more information or to contact the Solution provider: https://crackit.org.uk/ developing-automated-test-recognition-memory-rodents
3. Assessing aquatic organism health status non-invasively
Researchers at University of Naples Federico II seek collaborators to validate their eDNA metabarcoding technology for non-invasive health assessment of aquatic facilities.
What could the Solution be used for?
eDNA metabarcoding is a non-invasive, cost efficient technology to detect and identify potential pathogens (viruses, bacteria, protozoa, metazoa, parasites) in aquatic facilities; preventing the spread of pathogens to healthy animals and reducing the need for sentinel animals in assessing the health status of these facilities.
Need for collaboration
Collaborators are sought in any sector using aquatic animal health monitoring to assess and validate this eDNA metabarcoding technology against current practice. Input from partners who could develop and validate software to contain searchable DNA sequences of pathogens, are also welcomed.
3Rs impact assessment
More accurately assessing the presence of pathogens in aquatic facilities will:
- Avoid the movement of animals with subclinical infections that could become lethal upon stress induced by transport, reducing morbidity and mortality in the new facility caused by the spread of pathogens and infection.
- Reduce the number of sentinel animals required for health status assessment. In the technology developer’s zebrafish facility alone, this has reduced the number of sentinels required at each health assessment from 12 to six animals.
Applied globally, this technology has the potential to make a significant impact on the number of animals used within aquatic facilities.
For more information or to contact the Solution provider: https://crackit.org.uk/assessingaquatic-organism-health-status-non-invas...