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THE 3R LÄND Conference

Organoids, Organ-on-Chip, and In Silico Models have transformed biomedical and pharmaceutical research, marking a new era of experimentation. Organoids mimic the structure and function of organs, providing a physiologically human-relevant platform for disease study and drug testing. Organ-on-Chip systems replicate human organ microenvironments, offering dynamic conditions for drug assessment. In Silico Models, driven by computational simulations, expedite drug discovery by analyzing complex biological processes. These models contribute to accurate, efficient, and human-centered research, reducing reliance on animal testing and advancing biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences.

The 3R-Center Tübingen for In vitro Models and Alternatives to Animal Testing at the University of Tübingen and the NMI Natural and Medical Sciences Institute in Reutlingen was thrilled to host the first edition of the THE 3R LÄND Conference in the heart of the Länd, Tübingen, Germany, from May 21-23, 2024.

The conference united academia, clinicians, industry representatives, regulatory agencies, and policymakers in the biomedical and pharmaceutical fields. Together with our international and interdisciplinary participants, we delved deep into the forefront of biomedical and pharmaceutical research. With exciting keynote lectures, scientific presentations, poster sessions, and networking opportunities for interdisciplinary exchange, the first THE 3R LÄND Conference was an incredible success, marked by a great spirit of collaboration, trust, and innovation.

We thank everybody who made these three days such an incredible experience! Based on the numerous requests we received, we are excited to announce that this event will continue as a bi-annual conference series.

We look forward to welcoming you to the second edition of this exciting conference – stay tuned!

Meet our generous 2024 Sponsors:

Updates & News

Stay up to date and find all relevant information on demand via the 3R-Centers Tübingen’s LinkedInor the Twitter account!

2024 Keynote Lectures

  • Prof. Dr. Josef Penninger (Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, DE): Human organoids for infection research
  • Prof. Dr. Daniela Salvatori(Utrecht University, NL): The power of education for the transition to animal-free innovation: from theory to practice
  • Prof. Dr. Marcel Leist (Konstanz University, DE): Development of non-animal methods for neurodegeneration research and neurotoxicity assessment
  • Prof. Dr. Simone Mayer(Karlsruhe Institute of Technology & Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, DE): Human brain organoids as models of rare neurological disorders as a stepping stone towards personalized medicine
  • Prof. Dr. Peter Loskill (Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, DE): Recapitulating Complex Tissues using Organ-on-chip and Organoid Technologies

2024 Sessions

1) Innovation in Organoid Models

  • Chair: Deborah Kronenberg-Versteeg (DZNE Tübingen, DE)
  • Opening Speaker: Stefan Liebau (Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, DE): Getting closer to a glance back from the dish – next generation retinal organoids

2) Innovation in In Silico Models

  • Chair: Julia Marzi (NMI Natural and Medical Sciences Institute, Reutlingen, DE)
  • Opening Speaker: Oliver Röhrle (University of Stuttgart, DE): In silico modelling: chances and challenges

3) Use of NAMs in Industrial Research

  • Chairs: Mario Beilmann (Boehringer-Ingelheim, DE) & Stefan Kustermann (Roche, CH)
  • Speakers:
    • Mario Beilmann (Boehringer-Ingelheim, DE): MPS for mechanistic toxicity investigations: example drug-induced liver injury (DILI)
    • Gautier Roussignol (Sanofi, FR): Human microbrain 3D model for non-clinical neuronal safety evaluation at early phase of drug development
    • Diana Karwelat (Bayer, DE): Advanced cellular models at Bayer (Pharmaceuticals) – Use cases and current challenges
    • Terry van Vleet (Abbvie, USA): Current opportunities and remaining challenges for NAMs impact in pharmaceutical safety assessment
    • Adrian Roth (Roche, CH): Patient-derived human tissue models supporting precision medicine in clinical drug development
    • Rhiannon N. Hardwick (Bristol Myers Squibb, USA): Onboarding and Context of Use Qualification Considerations for GI and Liver CIVM/MPS Applications in Discovery Toxicology

4) Application of NAMs for Environmental, Food and Chemical Toxicology

  • Chair: Madalena Cipriano (Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, DE)
  • Opening Speaker: Karilyn E. Sant (San Diego State University, CA, USA): Embryonic and aquatic toxicity of common environmental pollutants: the case for tire tread particles and emerging coastal mixtures

5) Application of NAMs for Rare Diseases and Personalized Medicine

  • Chair: Florian Wimmers (Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, DE)
  • Opening Speaker: Marianne Carlon (KU Leuven, BE): Implementing patient-derived in vitro models for translational testing of gene editing therapies for cystic fibrosis

6) Round Table: Training and Education for NAMs

7) NAM-based Basic Biomedical Research

  • Chair: Monilola Olayioye (University of Stuttgart, DE)
  • Opening Speaker: Robert Zweigerdt (Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, DE): Human Multi-Tissue Organoids as an Advanced Teratogenicity Model

8) Innovation in Organ-on-Chip Models

  • Chair: Julia Rogal (Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, SE)
  • Opening Speaker: Stefan Krauss (Oslo University, NO): Promises and challenges of microphysiological liver models

2024 Keynote Speaker

Prof. Dr. Josef Penninger

Josef Penninger born in Gurten, Austria, is since July 1, 2023 the Scientific Director of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Germany. At the same time, he was appointed part-time Professor for Precision Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna. Josef Penninger studied medicine at the University of Innsbruck. From 1990 to 1994 he worked as post-doctoral fellow at the Ontario Cancer Institute, thereafter until 2002 at the Department of Immunology and Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto. As Principal Investigator at Amgen, his independent lab contributed to the development of the antibody Denosumab for bone loss and found the first connection for RANKL to mammary gland development in pregnancy and breast cancer. In 2002, he moved to Vienna, to start and develop the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, which has become one of the prime research centers in the world. From the end of 2018 to June 2023 Josef Penninger returned to Canada and was the Director of the Life Sciences Institute at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Penninger created a similar environment at the LSI that nurtured and trained the best and brightest young minds of UBC scholars. His major accomplishments include pioneering insights into the molecular basis of osteoporosis and breast cancer and demonstrating a critical role for ACE2 as the cellular receptor for SARS Coronavirus infections and linking ACE2 to lung failure in such infections.

Prof. Dr. Daniela Salvatori

Daniela Salvatori works as Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology at the Veterinary Faculty, in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
She is a veterinarian and a European Certified Veterinary Pathologist. She leads from 2019 the Utrecht Transition Program to Animal-free Innovations, an interdisciplinary group focused on innovation of research and education without use of laboratory animals.
Her research studies mechanisms of tumorigenesis of human and animal stem cells, and works on the characterization and validation of in vitro models for studying human and animal diseases. She works on evidence-based approaches for introduction of animal-free educational methods, in particular on plastination and virtual reality.

She has recently worked on the vision document focused on the use of fewer laboratory animals in higher education published by the Universities of the Netherlands and the Dutch Medical Hospital.

Her work focuses on animal-free innovations in life science education and on the importance of education as catalyst for acceptance of animal-free new approach methodologies. Her lecture will focus on these two aspects.

Prof. Dr. Simone Mayer

Simone Mayer is originally from Baden-Württemberg. She obtained her BA hons degree in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge (UK) and a MSc and PhD from the Georg August University Göttingen, International Max Planck Research School for Molecular Biology focusing on synaptic neurobiology. She did her postdoctoral work in the lab of Arnold Kriegstein at the Broad Stem Cell Center of the University of California, San Francisco funded by the European Molecular Biology Organization and the German Research Foundation (2015-2018) and developed a novel technique to perform multimodal single-cell analysis.

In 2018, she returned to Baden-Württemberg to set up her independent research group in “Molecular Brain Development” at the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research / University of Tübingen. During this time, she leveraged her expertise in human brain development and stem cell biology to establish several human brain organoid models of neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders. She has a strong focus on patient engagement, working very closely together with the patient organization PCH-Familie e.V. to reveal disease mechanisms underlying the rare genetic disorder pontocerebellar hypoplasia (PCH). Her work has been recognized by the Eva Luise Köher Research Award in 2023 and a Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Grant in 2022.

Since February 2024, Dr. Mayer holds the W3-professorship for Systemic Cellular Neurobiology at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

Prof. Dr. Marcel Leist

Marcel Leist obtained an MSc in toxicology (Guildford 1989), and a PhD in pharmacology (Konstanz 1993). Since 2006, he has been head of the Department of In vitro Toxicology and Biomedicine at the University of Konstanz (inaugurated by the Doerenkamp-Zbinden Foundation), and director of the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing in Europe (CAAT-Europe), a joint venture with Johns-Hopkins University. From 2000-2006, he worked as ‘Head of Department of Disease Biology’ on the discovery of neurology and psychiatry drugs in the Danish pharmaceutical company Lundbeck A/S. His research resulted in > 400 publications (cited over 35,000 times), and was awarded with many national and international research prizes. The current research addresses the question on how model data can be used for the prediction of the adverse effects of chemicals on the human population. While the current safety system world-wide is based on the use of experimental animals as model system, the research of Marcel has focused on new approaches to use alternative data sources. Steps towards this include (i) the development of non-animal new approach methods (NAM), (ii) the integration of multiple information layers from NAM in next generation risk assessment (NGRA), (iii) extrapolation of model data to complex real-life scenarios, and (iv) uncertainty analyses for the predictions. An example is the contribution to the GIVIMP guideline issued by the OECD or the developmental neurotoxicity in vitro test battery promoted by EFSA and the EPA.

Prof. Dr. Peter Loskill

Peter Loskill is Full Professor for Organ-on-Chip (OoC) Research at the Eberhard Karls University Tübingen (EKUT) and the NMI Natural and Medical Sciences Institute at the University of Tübingen in Reutlingen, and head of the 3R-Center Tübingen for In vitro Models and Alternatives to Animal Testing. Dr. Loskill graduated in 2012 from Saarland University with a PhD in Physics focusing on Biointerface Science. He then spent three years as postdoctoral fellow in the Healy lab at University of California at Berkeley developing human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC)-based OoC models, funded by the NIH/NCATS TissueChip program and the German Science Foundation (DFG). In 2015, he was named as one of Technology Review’s “Innovators under 35 Germany” and awarded a Fraunhofer ATTRACT Grant, the highest funded German starting grant program, which enabled him to start an independent research group at Fraunhofer IGB Stuttgart. In 2021, he accepted a W3-professor position, heading the Department for Microphysiological Systems in the Faculty of Medicine at EKUT and NMI. From 2021 to 2023, he served as the Chair of the European Organ-on-Chip Society (EUROoCS) and, in 2023, he became part of the governing board of the International MPS Society (iMPSS). Dr. Loskill and his interdisciplinary µOrganoLab merge engineering, biology, physics, and medicine to generate next generation tissue models recapitulating complex human biology in vitro. His research focuses on i) development of tailored OoC platforms, ii) application of OoCs for pharmaceutical research, toxicological screening, and biomedical studies, as well as on iii) enabling technologies that support parallelization, automation, and ease of use.

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