Abstract
Following feedback from LASA members who thought it was the right time, in November this year LASA held its first in-person annual conference since 2019. The key strength of LASA is our members, therefore getting back to meeting in person was very welcome. The meeting in Birmingham, UK was over two days; a revised arrangement to support a smooth and safe transition from the online format. An engaging scientific, trade and social programme was put together through LASA Council, section convenors and generous contributions following an open call to junior researchers. The meeting focused on discussing new scientific developments in laboratory animal sciences, animal welfare and, importantly, how our community can continue to promote further development in the 3Rs.
Our keynote speakers delivered masterclass lectures on two key areas of science: Andreas Schaefer (Francis Crick Institute) explained how neurotechnology is helping to unravel the function of sensory circuits in the mouse brain, and Rudolf de Wildt (GlaxoSmithKline), discussed the ‘Past – present – future of antibody discovery’. These talks disseminated how excellence, innovation and multidisciplinary preclinical animal research is currently supporting biomedical discovery and translational research, and additionally how this work is supporting further developments in 3Rs and alternative approaches. It is hugely important for the LASA community to continue engaging with such innovative research alongside the association’s commitment to ensure and promote best animal use, care and welfare.
In the Animal Care & Welfare session, there were extremely well-received talks on ‘Home cage monitoring of mouse behaviours’ by Sonia Bains (MRC Harwell, UK), ‘Mouse aggression’ by Tamara Baker (AstraZeneca, UK), ‘Handling and dosing refinements’ by Julia Bartlett (University of Bristol, UK) and ‘Zebrafish embryo genotyping’ by Claire Allen (University of Sheffield, UK). These provided up-to-date information on improving animal care and welfare through innovative monitoring and procedural refinements.
The LARN (Large Animal Research Network) Section provided insightful discussions on: the challenges to maximise refinement in large animal experiments by Eddie Clutton (University of Edinburgh, UK) and how technological innovations are proving instrumental in better approaches for assessing and promoting the health and welfare of farm and laboratory animals by Helen Gray and Matt Leach (Newcastle University, UK). LASA is strongly committed to continuing its support for innovations across all lab animal species, and therefore it is important that the large animal research community should receive LASA’s support and that the association can continue to promote broad collaboration with other lab animal fields.
The second meeting day started with the eternally challenging discussions on experimental design and reproducibility. The Education, Training and Ethics (ETES) Section set up an engaging and highly participative symposium addressing the currently hot topic of sex bias in preclinical research and Natasha Karp (AstraZeneca, UK) explored how to change this, and, importantly, Matt Leach (Newcastle University, UK) looked at how we can all continue to combat the reproducibility crisis, promoting good experimental design. These topics have been extensively discussed by the ETES group, led by Manuel Berdoy (University of Oxford, UK) and Angela Kerton (The Learning Curve, UK), which is tasked with developing new initiatives in experimental design training.
The Animal Science (Transgenics) Section provided an informative update on the National Mouse Genetics Network in the UK, led by Sara Wells (MRC Harwell, UK); Ben Davies (Francis Crick Institute, UK) discussed the impact of CRISPR on the 3Rs, addressing its challenges and providing an outlook to future refinements; Sophie Wood (Francis Crick Institute, UK) provided a very interesting story on the development of genetically altered (GA) opossums. The ever-growing interest in creating new GA animals and innovation in genetic engineering can provide major breakthroughs in the lab animal field; as such, these talks were critically important to the LASA community.
At the heart of the LASA ethos is the 3Rs. This year the session organised by the 3Rs section definitely did not disappoint, giving insights into innovation and new technologies that were of significant interest to the community. Hinzo Ho (University of Cambridge, UK) described a pioneering new cage system (Smartkage) for continuous phenotyping of mouse cognition and behaviour. Sorif Uddin (GlaxoSmithKline, UK) gave a fascinating insight into the use of omics technologies to promote reduction and refinement. Sian Wilcox discussed the use of water restriction to prevent torpor, often seen in food-restricted mice. Two replacement methods were described: the chick embryo by Linda Horan (Strathclyde University, UK) and a humanised 3D in vitro bone model by Melissa Finlay (Birmingham, UK), winner of the best 3Rs presentation sponsored by the Animals in Science Education Trust (www.as-et.org.uk).
The quality of the work presented across all posters was excellent, truly showed the variety of the work carried out across the laboratory animal field and, importantly, how it is impacting on the 3Rs and the quality of preclinical research. A poster entitled ‘Developing new in vivo envenoming models to aid snakebite therapy development and regulation’ by A Marriot and S Ainsworth (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine Institute, UK) got the highest commends due to its innovative 3Rs strategy that will reduce the severity of the model and therefore the overall relevance and translational efficacy of the preclinical studies. All poster presenters were commended; the great enthusiasm showed by all of them was great to see. This is what LASA is about; connecting like-minded scientists whose work is impacting on best animal care and welfare and leading towards a stronger 3Rs commitment, to support the best quality research.
Next year is LASA’s 60th anniversary, and the LASA teams are already planning for a 2023 Annual Conference, to celebrate the great achievements of our laboratory animal community, striving for best animal welfare and impactable science while continuing to pave the way to the 3Rs and innovative alternatives to research. Please keep an eye on the LASA website for future announcements about the 2023 60th Anniversary Meeting.