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EARA Newsletter

16 de Junho de 2025

EARA News Digest 2025 - Week 25


Welcome to your Monday morning update, from EARA, on the latest news in biomedical science, policy and openness on animal research. 

This week: #BOARD25: a worldwide call for transparency in animal research; Organoids reveal weapons from aggressive bacteria; Study in rats shows how paracetamol relieves pain. 

#BOARD25: a worldwide call for transparency in animal research   

Be Open about Animal Research Day (#BOARD25), the fifth annual EARA 24-hour social media campaign, took place on 3 June, with contributions from the global biomedical community. 

Held to coincide with the FELASA 2025 Congress in Athens, Greece, the campaign was supported by more than 260 partners from six continents - the highest participation to date. 

Examples of materials produced for the campaign included: 

  • A video feature with 15 scientists from different research institutions across Spain - including EARA members COSCE and CNB - sharing successful experiments in which animal research was essential.  

  • 20 Q&A videos from numerous researchers and institutions all over the world about the importance of openness in animal research and their support for #BOARD25. 

  • Facility videos from Portugal showcasing rodents (University of Beira Interior) and fish (EARA member, Champalimaud Foundation).

  • A podcast episode, Pioniers van de Wetenschap, featuring Lucas Mergan (Odisee University of Applied Sciences) and Liesbeth Aarts (Infopount Proefdieronderzoek), discusses the importance of transparency and public dialogue on animal research. 

#BOARD25 received media coverage in Mauritius, with a press interview with Nada Padayatchy from EARA member Bioculture (Mauritius) Ltd. 

You can review the whole media campaign at the #BOARD25 webpage, including statements, case studies, and videos, including Q&As. 

 

 

Organoids reveal weapons from aggressive bacteria  

Research from Sweden has revealed how aggressive Shigella bacteria cause severe gut infections by using organoids to study the infection process. 

Shigella, a bacteria responsible for over 200,000 deaths annually, particularly among young children, causes serious intestinal inflammation and has lacked suitable human models to study the infection process. 

Scientists at EARA Member Uppsala University used 3D human intestinal organoids, derived from stem cells purified from surgical waste, to examine how Shigella colonises and invades intestinal cells. 

Researchers used a random gene knockout technique, which disables gene function, and identified 100 Shigella genes that are essential for aggressive human tissue colonisation. 

“This list is a goldmine for understanding the progression of infections and for developing new treatments that can ‘turn off’ the bacteria’s pathogenic behaviour,” says Mikael Sellin from Uppsala University, leader of the team responsible for the study. 

The team is now going to use this model to study other infections that lack appropriate models and to explore drug targets that can neutralise Shigella’s unveiled infection mechanisms. 

This study was published in Nature. 

 

 

Study in rats shows how paracetamol relieves pain  

Researchers in Israel unveiled how one of the most common painkillers – paracetamol - relieves pain, in a study conducted on rats. 

It was believed that paracetamol relieves pain by working only on the nervous system, namely the brain and spinal cord.  

The researchers, from EARA member Hebrew University of Jerusalem, found that paracetamol also acts in the nerves that first detect the pain. After taking paracetamol, the body produces a molecule called AM404. It has now been found that this molecule is produced in the nerves that first detect pain, where it blocks pain transmission in rats before the pain message even starts. 

This discovery, published in PNAS, could be used to develop new types of painkillers that avoid common side effects, said Avi Priel, co-leader of the study: "If we can develop new drugs based on AM404, we might finally have pain treatments that are highly effective but also safer and more precise." 

 

 

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