News from LASA

Plans for LASA virtual meetings 2021

The Laboratory Animal Science Association (LASA) secured its own Zoom Pro account during the Summer of 2020 to enable a switch from traditional face-to-face meetings and workshops to an online delivery approach. LASA has taken the decision to continue with online meetings during 2021 as restrictions and recommendations relating to face-to-face meetings, social distancing, travel and COVID-19 are constantly evolving. Future plans for virtual online meetings in 2021 include:

LASA PEL ½ day training A half-day virtual workshop for new PELs and those who are still within the ‘early stage’ of their role (e.g. <3 years) is scheduled for 9 February 2021. Speakers have confirmed their availability and it is anticipated that this workshop will have a high interactive element whilst online to enable networking between PELs, which has proved to be beneficial to those who hold this responsibility. Feedback from previous ½ day training has also signalled that this is an excellent continuing professional development (CPD) opportunity to refresh the knowledge of those who have been establishment licence holders (ELHs) for some time.

Topics include:

• Legal and ethical requirements related to the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA)

• The role of the ELH and their responsibilities

• Ensuring compliance

• Challenging aspects of the PELH’s role

• What to do when things go wrong?

• Open forum discussion for sharing ideas on governance

• Q&A opportunity

• LASA and British Pharmacological Society (BPS) “Animal models of psychiatric disorder” meeting 24 February 2021. There is an excellent range of scientific speakers on the subject of ‘Exploring the status of animal models of psychiatric disorders – their validity and scope for successful translation’ for the joint LASA/BPS symposium, which will be held online. Registration is open and is organised via an online registration process hosted by the BPS. Everyone is welcome to register for the workshop, and those involved with the housing, husbandry and care of these models are especially encouraged to attend, as they add important contributions to the discussion work, which help benefit the science.

• LASA ‘Good Governance’ meeting 24 February 2021. The official title of the virtual 1-day meeting is a celebration of Douglas Adam’s famous novel ‘The Hitchhikers Guide to your Establishment… are you searching for an answer to the meaning of life, the universe and everything?’ It has an exciting range of speakers both from pharma, academia, clinical research organisations (CRO) and the Home Office, so do sign up for this CPD opportunity. Recordings of the majority of the sessions (apart from the interactive breakout room components) will be available for up to 1 month after the event on a secure password access area of the LASA website, for delegates to watch on demand.

The programme can be downloaded online from the meetings section of the LASA website https://www.lasa.co.uk/lasameetings/ – please do register your attendance.

Topics include:

• What does good governance look like?

• How does governance relate to good science?

• What does a culture of care look like? How can you benchmark your establishment? – Interactive session

• Do external audits assist with identifying areas for improvement?

• International collaboration – the good, the bad and the ugly

• Review and ideas for updating the Guiding Principles for Named Training and Competency Officers (NTCO), Named Information Officers (NIO) and Home Office Liaison Contacts (HOLC) working under the ASPA – Group discussion work

Psychiatry Consortium/BPS/LASA workshop 25 February 2021

A free interactive online workshop​ to further explore the key issues and opportunities raised in the joint BPS-LASA symposium on 24 February 2021. The workshop will be of particular interest to anyone interested in preclinical psychiatry drug discovery, whether from a clinical, preclinical, translational, welfare, academic, industrial or regulatory perspective. We particularly encourage registration from those who are in the early stages of their career.

Workshop background

Though there is an abundance of preclinical models of psychiatric ‘diseases’, their perception and use as models of a complete disorder, rather than a model of a behavioural phenotype, is contributing to poor translation and is undermining confidence in behavioural neuroscience as a means to the development of new therapeutics for psychiatric disorders.

The BPS and LASA recognise the challenges faced by the psychiatric research community and have come together to deliver a joint symposium to highlight the role of preclinical models in translational psychopharmacology.

The Psychiatry Consortium aims to facilitate the discovery and validation of new drug targets from academia, and to bring together the psychiatric research community to overcome key challenges facing psychiatric drug discovery. In this capacity, they propose a combined effort to build upon the issues raised in the BPS–LASA symposium (24 February 2021), and further explore the use of preclinical models in psychiatric drug discovery in an interactive workshop, utilising the experience of all those involved along the translational pathway.

Workshop purpose

1. To bring together experts in preclinical models of psychiatric disorders, drug discovery and development experts, animal technicians and regulatory authorities.

2. To provide a forum to further explore and discuss the topics raised during the preceding symposium on the use of pre-clinical models in psychiatric drug discovery.

3. To workshop the key factors researchers must consider when using preclinical models to aid drug discovery and development in psychiatry

Desired outputs

1. Increased collaboration and ‘joined up thinking’ across sectors.

2. Creation of a working group to formalise the outputs of the workshop discussions into a report and/or guidelines to support and advise those in the psychiatry research community who utilise preclinical models.

For more information and to register for the workshop please visit the Workshop Registration Page https://www.lasa.co.uk/lasameetings/

• LASA Animal Science (Transgenic Group)’s Section has planned a ‘Cryopreservation and Assisted Reproductive Technologies in genetically altered (GA) laboratory animals: Best practice, tips and tools: virtual technical working group meeting’ running online over 4 days (19–22 April 2021, 2–4 pm). Registration will be open via the LASA website meetings section closer to the date

• LASA annual meeting 2021

This will be an online series of events (e.g. webinars and/or short workshops) delivered throughout the month of November 2021. A schedule has yet to be finalised but each LASA Section will develop their own ‘stream’ and we anticipate that there will be something to interest everyone! LASA is also keen to integrate our Trade Partners and their ideas for communicating innovative ideas and updates into the virtual meeting month.

For all LASA events, contact the Secretariat for registration forms ([e-mail]).