Emily R. Trunnell, Ph.D.

Join the Q&A webinar for the NAMs Reduction to Practice Challenge this Wednesday, December 10th at 3:00pm ET!

Link to register: herox.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

#NAMs #funding #researchfunding #NIHfunding 🧪

Human-centric research: the largest dataset of human biology-based models launched Thanks to data-driven AI techniques, hundreds of thousands of resources are now available to help enhance biomedical research through cutting-edge human biology-based models, accelerating innovation a...

Read more about this @erc.europa.eu project here:

joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/jrc-news-and...

@scienceinnovation.ec.europa.eu

#NAMs

Landing page for bimmoh.eu

New website to bookmark! 🔖

bimmoh.eu

The Biomedical models Hub (BimmoH) is the largest public database of biomedical research papers using human biology-based models.

You can search by model, clinical condition, disease, pathophysiology, anatomy, histology, cell type, & more.

🧪

Frontiers | Advancements in the in vitro culture of human pluripotent stem cells: progress, challenges, and future directions: comprehensive review The advancement of human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) culture systems has revolutionized the landscape of preclinical drug discovery and toxicological evalua...

In this review, Niraj Chaudhary & Luis G. Villa-Diaz of @oaklandu.bsky.social provide a comprehensive analysis of current animal-free #hPSC culture platforms and their role in drug discovery, regenerative medicine, & more. 🧪

www.frontiersin.org/journals/tox...

[typo] researchers *used* hiPSC-derived...

Molecular and developmental deficits in Smith-Magenis syndrome human stem cell-derived cortical neural models Smith-Magenis syndrome (SMS) is caused by del(17)p11.2 and haploinsufficiency of RAI1. To understand disease etiology, we engineered SMS hiPSC-derived 2D cortical neurons and 3D organoid models. We fo...

Check out the @ajhgnews.bsky.social paper by @dksenthil.bsky.social,
@synbiogaolab.bsky.social, et al.

www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltex...

@cusm-muhc.bsky.social
@healthsciences.mcgill.ca
@mcgill-research.bsky.social

A quote in dark brown on a beige background reads: “[H]uman and mouse neocortices have distinct cell types, including unique types of radial glial cells as well as different chromatin spatial organization and gene-expression patterns and excitability.” Above the quote is a quote symbol in light brown. Below the quote is the text in light brown: “Lee et al. Am J Hum Genet. 2025 doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2025.07.020.” To the left is an image of a mouse standing on their hind legs with a light gray background. Over the image is half of a translucent beige, arched door-like shape.

Instead of mice, @rimuhc.bsky.social, @mcgill.ca, & @stanford.edu researchers hiPSC-derived neuronal models, including cortical #organoids, to discover that the chromosomal deletion that causes #SmithMagenis syndrome disrupts multiple steps of cortical development.

#neuroskyence 🧪

The 2025 #MDCC Action Plan must prioritize these approaches, replace references to increased animal experimentation with pledges to advance human-based models, & support the development of training in non-animal methods for the next generation of researchers.

Decades of experiments on animals for #DMD & #BMD have failed to fully predict outcomes in clinical trials.

Human-based methods—iPSC-derived muscle & brain organoids, engineered tissues, advanced imaging, & AI diagnostics—are predictive, ethical, translatable, & should be better supported.

Screenshot of Science Advancement and Outreach’s response to the Request for information on Draft Priorities for the Muscular Dystrophy Coordinating Committee’s Action Plan (NOT-NS-25-022). At the top is the Science Advancement and Outreach letterhead with the logo and address. Below is the title of the RFI and text with a link to the RFI website that reads: “Submitted online on November 6, 2025.”

In November, SAO submitted comments on the Muscular Dystrophy Coordinating Committee (MDCC) Action Plan.

In our statement, we urged MDCC to fully embrace human-based research & align with #NIH initiatives expanding funding, training, & infrastructure for human-relevant approaches.

🧪 #scipol

My 2025 Bluesky wrapped thanks to @anisota.net

Find yours here: anisota.net/harvest

The Science I Was Trained to Defend—and Why I Don’t Anymore During my first year in the neuroscience Ph.D. Program, I sat down with my major professor to decide what kind of experiments I would do—essentially to plan out the next four years of my life. Our lab...

When making a plan for her #PhD project, Trunnell recalls her professor telling her, “you’re going to want to do animal work because that’s what journals want to publish. You’ll have much less luck publishing papers if they’re only in vitro.”

www.whenwejustify.org/post/the-sci...

When you were starting your scientific career, did you feel pressured to conduct animal experiments? Or maybe you still do?

COLAAB founding member @ertrunnell.bsky.social shares her experience as a PhD student in this blog for @justifyglobal.bsky.social.

#phdlife #phdchat #phdsky

Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Simulation for Tracheostomy Education Among Healthcare Professionals Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of virtual reality (VR) simulation in tracheostomy teaching for healthcare professionals and its impact on short- and medium-ter...

This study found that this ethical, high-fidelity VR model significantly improved immediate knowledge acquisition & 30-day retention in tracheostomy education compared with conventional face-to-face teaching.

See the full article in @cureusmedical.bsky.social
www.cureus.com/articles/433...

Screenshot from the paper linked in the next post (doi: 10.7759/cureus.97083). The title of this original, open-access, peer-reviewed article by Haleema Siddique, Ali Abbas, and Ayeshah Abdul-Hamid is "Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Simulation for Tracheostomy Education Among Healthcare Professionals." It was published in Cureus on November 17, 2025.

Researchers at @ouhospitals.bsky.social are testing #VR to teach #tracheostomy skills to medical trainees.

Tracheostomies are rare, and this limited clinical exposure has been used by some programs to justify training using live animals, typically pigs.

#MedSky #MedED

Helsinki Animal Law Conference 2026: “Reimagining Justice Across Species” | Animal Law Centre | University of Helsinki University of Helsinki, Finland June 8-10, 2026

The 4th Helsinki #AnimalLaw Conference will be June 9–10 at @helsinki.fi, with a PhD workshop on June 8.

Submit abstracts for the conference or the workshop by Jan 31 ➡ www.helsinki.fi/en/researchg...

Keynote speakers include @jeffsebo.bsky.social & @annepetersmpil.bsky.social.

An evolutionary T119R substitution in the macaque T-cell immunoreceptor TIGIT enables proteolytic shedding and reveals clinical antibody vulnerabilities Despite being a promising target for cancer immunotherapy, several TIGIT (T-cell immunoreceptor with immunoglobulin and ITIM domain) antibodies have been largely disappointing in human trials. As TIGI...

By Pirillo, Freenor, Wamba, Bhathagar, Mondal, and Tushir-Singh of @ucd-mmi.bsky.social in @asbmb.bsky.social's #JBiolChem.

www.jbc.org/article/S002...

Why monkey studies may mislead research on cancer immunotherapy drugs targeting TIGIT Anti-TIGIT immunotherapy drugs behave differently in macaques and humans. The findings may explain why immunotherapy anti-TIGIT antibodies have failed in Phase III trials.

"They note that testing TIGIT cancer drugs in macaques could have produced misleading safety and efficacy data. This may help explain why TIGIT therapies have underperformed in late-stage trials."

Via @ucdavishealth.bsky.social

health.ucdavis.edu/news/headlin...

"The study’s new findings show that rhesus macaques—but not humans—shed TIGIT from immune cell surfaces when exposed to plasmin...

The result is that in macaques, antibodies may be soaked up by free-floating TIGIT instead of blocking immune suppression on the tumor-fighting cells."

A white and yellow graphic with the following quote: “The study underscores the need for improved models that better reflect human biology when developing next-generation immunotherapies.” The words “human biology” are highlighted. The quote is from a UC Davis Health news bulletin published November 24, 2025 and is attributed to Jogender Tushir-Singh, Ph.D.; Associate Professor, UC Davis School of Medicine.

A new study by @ucdaviscancer.bsky.social researchers reveals why experiments on rhesus macaques aren't a good fit for certain cancer immunotherapy studies.

#oncology #oncsky #animalresearch

Research Modernization NOW. Put the HUMAN back in HIV research. Sign the open letter! ScienceAdvancement.org/RMN

Learn more on page 28 of Research Modernization NOW: www.peta.org/wp-content/u...

Sign our open letter to put this plan into action: www.scienceadvancement.org/open-letter-...

#SciencePolicy #SciPol #HealthPolicy #WorldAIDSDay2025

For some great examples of human-relevant HIV/AIDS work, see these previous posts:

bsky.app/profile/ertr...

bsky.app/profile/ertr...

HIV and AIDS research for the 21st Century. Genetic, proteomic, immunological, environmental, and experimental differences ensure that experiments on animals can never fully capture the complexity of HIV or AIDS. Chimpanzees—once considered the gold standard for HIV research—were spared further use after the NIH’s 2015 moratorium. More recently, the CDC’s decision to close its monkey laboratories underscores the same truth: we don’t need these animals to do good science. The future of HIV and AIDS research lies in advanced, human-relevant methods: multi-omics, bioinformatics, in silico modeling, analysis of “HIV controller” cells, and better use of patient tissues and other clinical samples.

We owe it to those who fought—and to those still waiting for answers—to move beyond the past and embrace science that reflects the "human" in human immunodeficiency virus.

#HIVInnovation #HIVScience #StopHIVTogether

Almost 40 years and still no HIV vaccine. The first clinical trial of a preventive HIV vaccine began in 1987. Since then, between 100 and 250 vaccine candidates have been developed and tested using animals, yet every one has failed in human trials. Progress has been hindered by HIV’s extraordinary ability to evade immune defenses and the complexity of the human immune response to the virus. Compounding these challenges, trial designs—both in animals and humans—have often been inconsistent and poorly documented.

Only humans contract HIV and develop AIDS. To sidestep this critical detail, experimenters instead infect monkeys with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), a virus unique to African primates. However, SIV shares only about 55% genetic homology with HIV and is less genetically diverse. Because of differences in surface proteins and other molecular features, antibodies that neutralize SIV rarely work against HIV, and vice versa. Experimental infections in nonhuman primates typically involve doses of SIV far higher than the amount of HIV-1 a human would encounter during sexual transmission.

The promise of an HIV vaccine has killed thousands of macaques. Many of these animals—some endangered—are torn from their natural habitats and subjected to grueling journeys before arriving in U.S. laboratories. Some later prove to be carrying infections such as Valley fever, which can confound HIV experimental results. Others are bred into a life of deprivation in a laboratory, stripped of everything essential to their species. They endure painful procedures and induced illnesses before being killed. This doesn’t even account for the countless other species subjected to similar suffering—animals for whom we have no reliable estimates of their numbers—or the the human lives lost to AIDS while waiting for science that delivers.

After all that progress, it’s heartbreaking to see science still stuck in outdated methods.

Experiments on animals continue to dominate #HIVresearch, even though they fail to reflect the complexity of the virus or the human immune system.

#AIDSresearch #EndAIDS #GlobalHealth #PublicHealth

World AIDS Day. We've gone from Walkmans to smartphones- why his HIV science still on cassette?

For decades, communities devastated by HIV & AIDS fought tirelessly just to be heard. They marched, they protested, they demanded research funding and accountability—often in the face of stigma & indifference. Their courage changed the world, forcing governments & institutions to act.

#WorldAIDSDay

Spine Deformity Spine Deformity is an advanced platform featuring complex spinal surgery cases, engineered to replicate the biomechanical challenges of correction.

💉 UpSurgeOn’s hyper-realistic spine deformity simulator:

✅ Avoids the use of live animals
✅ Is cadaver-free
✅ Offers trainees the experience of working with bleeding tissue
✅ Integrates mixed reality
✅ Is compatible with mobile X-ray

www.upsurgeon.com/spine-deform...

#MedEd #Medsky

Predominance of animal-based expertise may bias NIH neuroscience grant review: A pilot study with implications for non-animal methodologies Despite increased enthusiasm for research methods that can replace the use of animals, the numbers of animals used in science and the funding for animal-based projects remain high. Our work addresses ...

We summarized our analysis of NIH-funded neuroscience research: study sections dominated by experts in animal-based research, correlating with fewer funded non-animal projects and underscoring the need for diverse expertise in review groups. doi.org/10.1101/2025...

#neuroskyence

Last week, we offered our assistance to #NIH officials in advancing the agency's goal of reforming grant review to better prioritize human-based research.

We also recommended additional steps the agency could take to further mitigate #AnimalMethodsBias in the review process.

#grantreview #scipol

We were honored to receive @lushprize.bsky.social's Major Science Collaboration prize last year. Excited to see this year's nominees!

Medical Training Resources - Science Advancement and Outreach Division Companies and papers describing non-animal simulation models for surgical and procedural medical training

💡Planning to publish on the use of animals in medical or surgical training?

We’ve created a new resource listing journals that accept papers on this topic.

Let us know if we missed any!

www.scienceadvancement.org/resources/me...

#MedEd #MedSky #SurgSky #SurgEd