Title: Recapitulating musculoskeletal disorders in vitro –Next generation of preclinical research towards translation

Dr. Riccardo Gottard / Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania, PA, United States

Riccardo Gottardi graduated in 2003 in Applied Physics at the University of Pisa and obtained his PhD in 2007 from the University of Genova (Italy). In 2011 he moved to the University of Pittsburgh with a postdoctoral fellowship to work with Dr. Rocky S. Tuan and Dr. Steven R. Little. His research focused on tissue engineering/regenerative medicine of cartilage and joint soft tissues leveraging biomaterials and drug delivery, and he has developed innovative synthetic tissue models to study tissue cross talks in health and disease. Since January 2019, Dr. Gottardi has been leading the Bioengineering and Biomaterials laboratory at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania, the first pediatric lab of its kind focused on engineering new approaches to treat airway disorders. Riccardo is known for his exceptional mentoring skills and he is actively involved in several Diversity support groups. 

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Title: 3D cell culture systems to study host-pathogen interactions –Studying the crosstalk between immune competent barriers and viruses by implementing the 3R principle

Prof. Doris Wilflingseder / Medizinische Universität Innsbruck, Austria

Dr. Doris Wilflingseder was born in 1971. She studied biology/zoology at the Leopold-Franzens-University in Innsbruck and did her PhD in 2000 at the Medical University of Innsbruck (MUI). From then on, she worked as a Post Doc in Immunology with a focus on host-pathogen interaction at the Institute of Hygiene and Medical Microbiology (MUI). From 2008-2009, she worked at University College London. From 2012-2019, she was Associate-Professor and PI, and since 2020 she holds a University professorship in Infection Biology at the Institute of Hygiene and Medical Microbiology (MUI). Learn more.

Title: The Digital Fingerprint of Severity in Laboratory Animals

Dr. Steven R. Talbot / Institute of Laboratory Animal Science, Hannover Medical School (MHH), Germany

Dr. Steven R. Talbot is a Data Scientist and Biochemist at the Institute of Laboratory Animal Science at the Hannover Medical School (MHH). Currently, he works on his habilitation and has specialized in methods of quantitative severity assessment in laboratory animals and the advancement of Machine Learning to improve animal welfare. Furthermore, he actively promotes statistical education in young scientists and aims at including artificial intelligence in critical decision-making processes, e.g., the 3R sector. Steven is also a passionate gravel biker, an avid R-enthusiast, loves pizza, and co-author of the pre-clinical dictionary Pschyrembel. Learn more: Email / Website / GitHub / Institute / Project / Twitter

Title: Status update and current initiatives: Animal-free human-relevant approaches in the United States

Janine McCarthy / Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, United States

Janine McCarthy is a research policy specialist with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit health organization where she works to promote the development and implementation of non-animal research methods for biomedical science and regulatory testing. Janine launched the Early-Career Researchers Advancing 21st Century Science, or ERA21 program, which engages the next generation of scientists and connects them to the benefits of human-relevant research. In this role, she develops specialized resources for researchers, organizes workshops, educational symposia, and trainings for scientists, and engages with government agencies to increase the funding of non-animal research methods to support early-career researchers. Janine has a Master of Public Health and lives in Annapolis, Maryland with her husband and German Shepherd dog, Ida.

Title: Towards robust evidence generation in preclinical research

Dr. Ulf Tölch / BIH QUEST Center for Responsible Research, Berlin, Germany

Ulf obtained his PhD in biology and later turned into psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Currently, he is responsible for educational formats at the BIH QUEST Center for Responsible Research in Berlin where he also heads the research group on Systemic Perspectives in Translational Biomedicine.

Title: Alternative methods in toxicity testing – Developmental neurotoxicity as a case study moving towards regulatory acceptance

Prof. Dr. Ellen Fritsche / IUF – Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, Düsseldorf, Germany

Ellen Fritsche, MD holds a joint professorship in Environmental Toxikology at the Heinrich-Heine-University and the IUF and leads the group of Alternative method development for environmental toxicity testing at the IUF. She successfully developed a neurosphere model (clusters of primary neural progenitor cells) to study basic processes of human brain development in vitro and to validate the system to be used for developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) hazard assessment. A crucial aspect of the neurosphere system is the possibility for pathway-to-function analyses in a species-specific context which will help to translate rodent data to humans. The development and integration of artificial intelligence by training convolutional neuronal networks for cell identification using Hight Content Imaging Analyses (HCA) allows for automation and medium-throughput applications – a targeted approach towards the up-scaling challenge. 

Title: Novel feature extraction from physiological waveforms

Dr. Manasai Nandi / Reader Integrative Pharmacology, King’s College London

Manasi Nandi is a Reader in Integrative Pharmacology. Her research focuses on understanding cardiovascular changes in disorders such as sepsis. Her current focus is an interdisciplinary project using a new mathematical method to extract additional information from physiological waveforms. She has active collaborations with King’s Health Partners, academic labs and industry, exploring the technology for clinical applications in prediction of deterioration events in adult and paediatric ICU, respiratory disorders (COPD, asthma, sleep apnoea) and home monitoring for at risk groups. She also focuses on the refinement of preclinical models to optimize clinical translation within the fields of sepsis, trauma and other cardiovascular diseases