Engaging Researchers in Animal-Free 21st Century Science

View event recordings here.

Workshop No. 6, Green Toxicology: Making NAMs Part of the Green Chemistry Tool Box

Workshop No. 6 featured Alexandra Maertens, PhD, from the Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing. Dr. Maertens discussed how NAMs, including computational models and AI-enabled approaches, can provide faster, more accurate, and mechanistically informative insights into toxicity.

Workshop No. 5, Addressing the Preference for Animal-Based Research Methods

Workshop No. 5 featured Catharine E, Krebs, PhD, from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine discussing animal methods bias, a peer review bias characterized by a preference for animal-based research methods and lack of expertise to adequately evaluate nonanimal methods. In addition to a review of the current evidence for animal methods bias, this presentation provided recommendations for research, journals, and funders for mitigating its harmful effects.

Workshop No. 4, A NAMs-Focused Literature Searching Approach

Workshop No. 4 featured Rob Wright, MLS, of the Johns Hopkins University Welch Medical Library leading participants through a structured, NAMs-focused approach to searching the scientific literature. Using PubMed, Wright demonstrated how to build a targeted search concept, with a focus on organoids and microphysiological systems.

Workshop No. 3, Exploring Brain MPS, Organoid Intelligence, and Career Pathways

Workshop No. 3 featured both a scientific presentation and a career panel. Dr. Itzy Morales Pantoja presented about recent advances in brain microphysiological systems that are reshaping how we model neurological function and disease. The career panel featured representatives from academia, industry, government, and policy sharing their career journeys and discussing their current work.

Career Panel:

• Eryn Slankster-Schmierer, PhD – Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
• Annalisa Gastaldello, PhD – Joint Research Centre of the European Commission
• James J. Hickman, PhD – Hesperos
• Itzy Morales Pantoja, PhD – Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing

Workshop No. 2, Antibodies and Beyond: The Power of Animal-Free, Recombinant Antibodies

Workshop No. 2 featured Dr. Esther Wenzel, co-founder and COO of the biotechnology company Abcalis GmbH. Dr. Wenzel gave an interactive and informative introduction to antibodies, including how they are developed, how animals play a role, and what the advantages and disadvantages of animal-free antibodies are.

Workshop No. 1, Understanding Translatability and Crafting Competitive Grant Applications

Workshop No. 1 featured Dr. Jarrod Bailey, director of medical research at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, discussing how human-focused research provides greater clinical benefits due to greater biological similarity and specificity of human-based methods and Dr. Angela Hvitved, program director at the Alternatives Research & Development Foundation, providing an overview of funding opportunities for nonanimal research methods and practical tips for crafting a strong proposal that is tailored to the target funding opportunity.

Technology Showcases and Research Trainings

Qureator's Human-Based Technology for Toxicology Research: Facility Tour and Hands-On Workshop

On March 22, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and Qureator hosted a free, hands-on workshop at Qureator's laboratory facilities in San Diego, Calif. Participants toured the facility, heard from scientists working with the models, and gained firsthand experience using the technology.

New Era of Biomedical Research: How Human-Specific Methods Are Transforming Science

On Nov. 20, 2025, at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists (ABRCMS) in San Antonio, Jon McCord, PhD, and Itzy Morales Pantoja, PhD, presented on human-specific research methods. Speakers discussed how these methods are being increasingly prioritized by federal agencies and embraced by many in the scientific community. The session provided valuable insight into nonanimal methods for an audience ranging from undergraduate students through faculty.

Hesperos Technology for Toxicology Research: From Development to Approval

On March 16, 2025, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, the Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing, and Hesperos partnered to host a free, hands-on workshop to showcase Hesperos technology and applications. A limited number of participants toured the facility and built three different human-on-a-chip models, heard from scientists working with the models, and sat down with leaders in the field, Drs. J Hickman and Thomas Hartung, to discuss advancing human-specific nonanimal approaches.

A Biotechnology Showcase in Human-Specific Nonanimal Research and Testing

On Feb. 14, 2025, a workshop at the American Association for the Advancement of Science Annual Meeting showcased cutting-edge, human-specific models, like organ-chip technologies, that offer more precise, translatable, effective, and ethical means of investigation. Participants learned about various human-focused approaches through live demonstrations, expert talks, and collaborative discussions, exploring the potential and practical applications of these advanced models. Presentations featured speakers from Emulate, InSphero, MIMETAS, MatTek, and the Wyss Institute at Harvard University.

ERA21 Travel Award Winners Series

Alexis Feidler, MS, and Mora García, MS

The Feb. 24 webinar featured awardees from the 2025 13th World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences. Alexis Feidler, MS, shared her work using iPSCs to model the combined effects of genetics and aging on the human blood-brain barrier, and Mora García, MS, discussed the development and characterization of a hepatic spheroid model integrating Kupffer-like macrophages for in vitro toxicity testing.

Zheng Tan, PhD, and Alessandra Maria Anna Rando, MS

The Oct. 23 webinar featured travel awardees from the 2025 Microphysiological Systems World Summit. Zheng Tan, PhD, discussed a human-based skin-lymphoreticular model-on-chip to emulate inflammatory skin conditions, and Alessandra Maria Anna Rando, MS, shared her work on tricompartmental in vitro models of the intestinal barrier for regulatory-compliant drug absorption studies.

Martina Iulini, PharmD, PhD, and Dre’Von Dobson, PhD

On Sept. 24, 2025, travel awardees from the 2025 Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting joined us in a virtual webinar to present their research. Dr. Iulini discussed her project: Toward Sustainable Immunotoxicology: An Animal-Free Culture Medium Model for TD and TI Antibody Response Assay, and Dr. Dobson shared his work on the effects of controlled wood smoke exposure on markers of thrombosis.

ERA21 Journal Club

The Future of 3D Brain Cultures in Developmental Neurotoxicity Testing

American Society for Cellular and Computational Toxicology Annual Meeting, Gaithersburg, Md., USA