EARA News Digest 2025 - Week 14
Welcome to your Monday morning update, from EARA, on the latest news in biomedical science, policy and openness on animal research.
This week: Reducing animal use 100-fold; EARA Conference registration is open; Microbiome & fruit flies; EU science event & primate studies. |
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Reducing animal use in innovative antibody testing
A breakthrough technology developed in Switzerland could drastically reduce the number of animals needed for safety testing of therapeutic antibodies..
Antibodies are proteins produced by the immune system to help fight infections or target diseases. These proteins make up more than half of the recently approved medicines known as biopharmaceuticals - drugs derived from biological sources.
Before each of these therapeutic antibodies can be tested in humans, rigorous studies in animals are required to assess their safety, effectiveness, and behaviour in the body. However, currently, scientists can only test up to four active ingredients - the substances in drugs that produce the intended effects - in a single animal study.
Researchers at EARA member the University of Zurich (UZH), have now developed an innovative approach called Flycode technology, which allows up to 25 different antibodies to be tested simultaneously in a single mouse.
Flycodes are small protein fragments linked to antibodies, that function like barcodes to tag each individual drug candidate. This allows each candidate to be tracked and analysed separately - the technology also does not interfere with the antibodies’ effectiveness in a living organism.
To demonstrate the potential of Flycode, the UZH team tested 80 drug-like synthetic biomolecules – known as sybodies. They successfully gathered data on how these drugs travel through the body and how long they remain active, using just 18 mice—representing a 100-fold reduction in the number of animals typically required for such studies.
“We get much more data with fewer mice, and the data is of better quality because the analyses can be directly compared,” said Markus Seeger, lead author of the study published in PNAS.
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Registrations are now open for the EARA Conference 2025 - Shaping the future of animal research communication - the first-ever European Animal Research Association conference.
This event will bring together the biomedical community, science communicators, and key stakeholders to explore the future of animal research communication.
Conference Dates: 6–7 November 2025
Location: Berlin, Germany (Charité Berlin & Max Delbrück Center)
Register here
Why Attend?
- Gain insights from global experts on transparency and openness in animal research.
- Participate in interactive discussions and workshops on science communication.
- Network with researchers, policymakers, journalists, and industry professionals.
- Learn about the latest developments in legislation, 3Rs, and patient engagement.
Don’t miss this opportunity to be part of a transformative discussion on the future of animal research communication in Europe.
Register now and, for more details, visit EARA Conference 2025 webpage.
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Microbiome scent has effect on fruit fly growth
Researchers in South Korea have discovered that gut bacteria can emit airborne scents that help the growth of fruit flies.
While it is known that the microbiome – the natural community of bacteria that lives in the body – is involved in promoting growth, it was still unclear how exactly this is achieved.
To shed light on this, a study led by Seoul National University focused on Lactiplantibacillus plantarum bacteria which are part of the gut microbiome of fruit flies and are needed for enhanced growth and development.
The team saw that this type of bacteria could still stimulate growth in fruit flies, even when none of the bacteria were present in the gut and were instead elsewhere in the body.
Further investigation showed that this growth mechanism was due to the bacteria emitting scents that contain airborne chemical signals, known as volatile somatotrophic factors (VSFs), which the team then observed activated pathways responsible for body growth.
It was also observed that fly larvae, which were completely free of microorganisms and that did not have much exposure to the VSFs, had growth defects, but making them inhale just one type of VSF could reverse these effects.
And although the VSFs are present in scent, the growth effects occurred independently of smell (because the VSFs were not only detected through the ‘nose’, but also in the gut).
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Introducing school pupils to primate studies
UK researchers working on monkey behavioural studies were among the presenters at an EU science event, in Brussels, attended by 5,000 schoolchildren.
The team from Newcastle University and the University of Portsmouth were at Science is Wonderful!, an annual fair where scientists can engage with young audiences, organised by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA).
The interactive display was designed to introduce schoolchildren to the cognitive abilities of primates and highlight the need for conservation.
Visitors to the booth took part in several activities including one run by Francesca De Petrillo, a cognitive primatologist at Newcastle, that introduced visitors to a logic game demonstrating how monkeys, like humans, make decisions based on probabilities.
“I have always deeply enjoyed engaging children with science, especially animal behaviour, and it was truly fantastic to see so many young minds excitedly interacting with science,” she said.
Meanwhile, Jerome Micheletta, from the Centre for Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology at Portsmouth, guided students through a game to decipher macaque facial expressions, to help us understand how primates communicate.
Dr Micheletta also showed Ekaterina Zaharieva (both pictured), the EU Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, around the booth.
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