Emily R. Trunnell, Ph.D.

Researchers at Hubrecht Institute and Radboud University developed an animal-free gel in which organoids can grow and expand long-term. The PIC-invasin gel allows for more consistent, ethical and affordable organoid research. @hansclevers.bsky.social @pnas.org 
🔗 https://f.mtr.cool/cekttmhhtn

New review by @racsurgeons.bsky.social's ASERNIP-S questions whether animal use in #MedEd is truly necessary.

The authors argue the burden of proof should fall on proponents & raise concerns about environmental impacts vs. synthetic models.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

#MedSky

Hesperos chief scientist Dr. James Hickman told Business Wire that their work "provides a new tool to better understand how stress affects the brain and to screen candidate therapeutics in a biologically relevant context.”

www.businesswire.com/news/home/20...

A graphic with a photo of a white and grey rat standing up but slightly crouching in front of a geometric blue and yellow background. The text reads: “Business Wire. October 7, 2025. “This advance demonstrates the ability of Human-on-a-Chip systems to replicate complex neurological processes such as stress-related cognitive decline without the need for animal studies.” James Hickman, PhD. Chief Scientist, Hesperos.

🤝 Hesperos, Inc. and Bayer teamed up to create the first-ever human microphysiological system that can model central nervous system stress.

Read the paper by Autar et al. 👇
doi.org/10.1016/j.bi...

#neuroskyence #invitro #mps #organonchips #brainonachip #NAMs #humanrelevant 🧪

Forebrain assembloids support the development of fast-spiking human PVALB+ cortical interneurons and uncover schizophrenia-associated defects Walsh et al. establish a human forebrain assembloid protocol that supports the derivation of bona fide PVALB+ cortical interneurons and employ it to model schizophrenia in disease-associated structura...

Using #hPSC lines with schizophrenia-linked mutations, the team identified variant-specific disruptions in brain cell development and network activity.

Funded in part by @bbrfoundation.bsky.social

Read more in @cp-neuron.bsky.social
www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

#devbio #devneuro

This human forebrain #assembloid model by Walsh et al. of the Struder lab, including @luzjubierre.bsky.social captures the molecular and electrophysiological features of primary human PVALB+ interneurons.

Graphic abstract from the linked 2025 paper by Walsh et al. (10.1016/j.neuron.2025.06.017) showing the analyses done with forebrain organoids

Researchers at @mskcancercenter.bsky.social, @zuckermanbrain.bsky.social, @weillcornell.bsky.social, & @columbiapsych.bsky.social developed a new, human-relevant model for studying the role of interneuron dysfunction in #schizophrenia. 🧠

#neuroskyence #organoid

Screenshot from the April 27, 2011 Nature World View article by Hidde Ploegh titled "End the wasteful tyranny of reviewer experiments." The authors of this post have added to the title, making it "End the wasteful tyranny of reviewer animal experiments." The article has been accessed 18,000 times, cited 41 times, and has an altmetric score of 488. The subtitle reads: "Peer review of scientific papers in top journals is bogged down by unnecessary demands for extra lab work, argues Hidde Ploegh."

Has a reviewer ever suggested you perform an extra experiment? 🧪

We’re guessing most of you will say yes.

In 2011, Hidde Ploegh dubbed these suggestions “reviewer experiments” and boldly called for an end to their “wasteful tyranny.”

#SciPub #PeerReview #Reviewer3 #Bioethics

CC:
@intlmenosociety.bsky.social
@menopausesociety.bsky.social
@letstalkmenopause.bsky.social
@amwadoctors.bsky.social
@womens-healthmag.bsky.social
@npwh.bsky.social

#femtech #menopauseinfo #womenshealth

State-of-the-art in vitro tools already advance gynecological research, but their use in menopause science needs more support.

Research Modernization NOW offers a roadmap to shift resources from animal use to human-relevant methods.

Join the movement:
www.scienceadvancement.org/open-letter-...

Graphical abstract for the linked paper, "Harnessing omics data for drug discovery and development in ovarian aging."

In a recent review, Zhang et al., including researchers from @pennmedicine.bsky.social, explored how multi-omics analyses—especially with AI—can help identify drug targets and guide therapies to slow or reverse ovarian aging.

doi.org/10.1093/humu...

Timing of menarche and menopause and epigenetic aging among U.S. adults: results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999–2002 - Clinical Epigenetics Reproductive aging, including timing of menarche and menopause, influences long-term morbidity and mortality in women, yet underlying biological mechanisms remain poorly understood. Using DNA methylat...

Using #epigenetic analysis of #NHANES data, @epiandres.bsky.social et al. of @stanfordeph.bsky.social & @berkeleypublichlth.bsky.social found earlier menopause is linked to accelerated epigenetic aging.

clinicalepigeneticsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Multiomic profiling reveals timing of menopause predicts prefrontal cortex aging and cognitive function Age at menopause is positively correlated with cognitive function and negatively correlated with prefrontal cortex aging acceleration. Transcriptomic and metabolomic data from the brain show evidence...

Scientists at @hsph.harvard.edu, @bostonchildrens.bsky.social, @harvardepi.bsky.social, @mgbresearch.bsky.social, & the @broadinstitute.org analyzed 2,000+ post-mortem brain samples, showing age at menopause predicts brain aging & later cognitive health.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Molecular and genetic insights into human ovarian aging from single-nuclei multi-omics analyses - Nature Aging The molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying ovarian aging are incompletely understood. Here the authors provide single-nuclei RNA and ATAC-seq of human ovarian tissue from four young and four rep...

Using fresh-frozen ovary samples & stem cell lines, @suhlab-aging.bsky.social et al. from @columbiamed.bsky.social & @ucsdmedschool.bsky.social created a single-nuclei, multi-omics atlas revealing age-related changes.
In @nataging.nature.com
doi.org/10.1038/s435...

#Omics approaches—genomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics, and proteomics—are proving extremely useful for menopause research because they allow scientists to explore the complex, multi-layered biological changes that occur as the ovaries age and reproductive function declines. 🧬

Move over mice: The @mit.edu Health and Life Sciences Collaborative is aiming high with its moonshot for menstruation science. ⤵️

bsky.app/profile/ertr...

YouTube video by Sharon Kedar, MBA, CFA Mice Don’t Menstruate: Reimagining Women’s Health Using Organ Chips with Dr. Donald Ingber

Rewatch this fantastic interview with Don Ingber of the @wyssinstitute.bsky.social on organ-chips for women's health research, because, after all, mice don't menstruate.

youtu.be/kMEKHkC7AJw

We have a drug that might delay menopause — and help us live longer Ovaries age faster than the rest of the body. Figuring out how to slow menopause might help all of us age better.

Did you miss @celiaford.bsky.social's 2024 @vox.com article on the search for menopause drugs?

Check it out here:
www.vox.com/future-perfe...

Read our May 2025 Women's Health Week thread ⤵️

bsky.app/profile/ertr...

Ahead of #WorldMenopauseDay2025, let’s recap some of SAO's recent posts & relevant content on human-centered menopause and women's health research, and highlight some exciting new studies that are moving the field forward. 👇

For those funding or advocating for women's health, investing in human biology-based approaches—like complex #invitro models, #omics, and longitudinal studies—offers a more effective path. These methods reflect human biology and can speed the development of targeted treatments.

From an already too-small pool, poorly translatable experiments on animals are siphoning resources that could instead be used for human-relevant approaches, improving education and training for healthcare providers, expanding access to evidence-based care, and more.

🐁 A considerable portion of this funding is spent artificially inducing menopause in mice & other animals, who do not naturally undergo this transition.

While a few species, such as certain whales, show menopause-like traits, these cases are rare & biologically distinct from the human experience.

💰 Funding for menopause research, as with broader #womenshealth initiatives, is critically insufficient.

In FY23, #NIH allocated only $53 million to menopause-related studies, a mere 0.11% of its total budget.

A dark blue, lavender, and pink graphic with the following text: "World Menopause Day. October 18. Menopause is a human experience. Our science should match it. It also includes two photos of older women and the SAO logo.

#Menopause is a complex biological transition with profound health implications, affecting approximately half of the population at some stage in their lives.

Despite its significance, menopause remains substantially underrepresented in research and #SciPol agendas.

#WorldMenopauseDay 🧪

Graphic with a photo of a woman looking at a band-aid on her arm, presumably just vaccinated. It includes the following quote from Chee Wah Tan, PhD, of the National University of Singapore, which was featured in the linked October 10, 2025 article in Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News: “The human organoid system is particularly important in infectious disease research. Beyond serving as a physiologically relevant model to study viral pathogenesis, it has recently been applied to recapitulate key germinal center features in vitro, enabling the evaluation of humoral immune responses to vaccines without reliance on animal models—which are often poorly predictive of human vaccine responses.”

#Organoid technology, coupled with AI, is advancing #exposomics & #immunology research

Featuring research from:
@stanfordmedicine.bsky.social
@gatechengineers.bsky.social
@mpi-nat.bsky.social
& more

www.genengnews.com/topics/trans...

#immunosky 🧪

Frontiers | Exploring the potential of computer simulation models in drug testing and biomedical research: a systematic review IntroductionThe growing limitations of animal models in drug testing and biomedical research, including ethical concerns, high costs, and poor translational ...

Rather than merely replacing experiments on animals, Mittal et al. from @univmiami.bsky.social challenge us to fundamentally rethink and redefine what qualifies as #preclinical evidence altogether.

In @frontiersin.bsky.social Pharmacology: doi.org/10.3389/fpha...

🆕 #SysRev Findings ⤵️

Computational simulations have the potential improve accuracy, translation, and drug development, decreasing the risk of late-stage failure and advancing the promise of personalized medicine.

#insilico 🧪 🧬

Mini-Brains Help Spot Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder With 92% Accuracy Researchers combined patient-derived brain organoids with machine learning to study schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Their model distinguished between healthy, schizophrenic and bipolar samples wit...

Also covered by @rhiannasmithsci.bsky.social for Technology Networks: www.technologynetworks.com/cell-science...

Machine learning-enabled detection of electrophysiological signatures in iPSC-derived models of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder Neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia (SCZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) remain challenging to diagnose due to the absence of objective biomarkers, with

By Kai Cheng et al. of the Kathuria lab at JHU BME, @jhuartssciences.bsky.social, @harvardmed.bsky.social, @cgm-mgh.bsky.social, @broadinstitute.org, @mcleanhospital.bsky.social

In @aip-publishing.bsky.social
pubs.aip.org/aip/apb/arti...