EARA News Digest 2025 - Week 17
Welcome to your Monday morning update, from EARA, on the latest news in biomedical science, policy and openness on animal research.
This week: Dutch government endorses research using monkeys; Mouse study gives clues to infertility; Speedy tool to study fruit fly behaviour. |
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Dutch government supports research using monkeys
In a significant move, a committee of government experts has published a report stating that biomedical research with monkeys remains crucial in drug development and regulation.
The Committee for the Research of Non-Human Primates (NHPs), had been asked by the Dutch government to investigate if research with NHPs could be further reduced, and has now published its conclusions.
Commenting on whether New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) can replace, reduce or refine NHP research, the committee said that NAMs were not yet capable of answering all research questions where the use of monkeys is currently considered necessary.
Eppo Bruins, the Minister for Education, Culture and Science (OCW) welcomed the outcomes of the investigation and in a letter to Parliament concluded that research at EARA member the Biomedical Primate Research Centre (BPRC) should be maintained according to current agreements.
The minister added: “I believe it is up to the Dutch researchers and competent authorities themselves to determine which research involving NHPs is truly necessary, following a thorough evaluation. More generally, I am very reluctant to make political decisions about which research should or should not take place in the Netherlands.”
The report further said that the Netherlands is a significant contributor to NHP research and described a phase out or reduction in Dutch NHP research as potentially a setback in European autonomy when it comes to, for example, vaccine development.
BPRC breeds its own monkeys and is one of only four European primate centres that does so.
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Mouse study gives clues to infertility
Researchers in Poland have identified, in genetically altered mice, the critical role of a group of genes in the development of egg and sperm cells.
Researchers at the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), an EARA member, focused on the Tent5 gene family, already found to be essential for formation of sex cells.
They genetically engineered the mice to carry several mutations in the Tent5 genes to study how these genes affected the development of egg and sperm cells.
The team showed that Tent5b, Tent5c, and Tent5d genes are vital for egg cell formation, sperm development, and early sperm maturation, respectively, showing they are all essential for successful fertilisation.
Michał Brouze, one of the lead researchers at IMCB said: “Our findings may go beyond laboratories and form a foundation for future infertility treatments.”
Infertility affects one in six people globally, and although its mechanisms are complex and poorly understood, advances in molecular biology are helping to clarify the process. The study is published in Nature Communications
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Speedy tool to study behaviour in fruit flies
A new machine learning tool, developed in India, could help scientists around the world study behaviour, such as aggression and courtship, in fruit flies without the need for expensive laboratory equipment.
The fruit fly (drosophila melanogaster) is a key organism used in neuroscience, particularly in the study of the genes and brain cells responsible for complex social behaviours.
Traditionally, analysing these behaviours required either expert human observers or costly automated systems.
Now it is hoped that the Drosophila Aggression and Courtship Evaluator (DANCE), an open-source, cost-effective system to study how the brain and the nervous system influence behaviour in humans and animals, could be a quicker and simpler way to do this, also reducing the need for rodent studies in early behavioural research.
Researchers from the Centre for Molecular Neurosciences in Manipal, developed DANCE to identify six key behaviours in male flies, including lunging (aggression) and wing extension, circling, following, attempted copulation and courtship.
The DANCE classifiers closely matched expert human scoring across all behaviours and outperformed previous methods and was able to reproduce results from earlier studies - demonstrating, for instance, how fly behaviour changes with social isolation, food availability, or the genetic manipulation of specific brain cells.
Pavan Agrawal, senior author of the study available in eLife said: “Its ease of adaptability and portability should also make it useful for studying insect behaviours closer to their natural habitat."
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