Strategic collaboration aims to reduce the use of animals in drug research

A new strategic collaboration is aiming to reduce the use of animals in research whilst also accelerating the translation of more research models in drug discovery.

The Medicines Discovery Catapult and the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) announced the collaboration alongside the launch of a research showcase.

The aim of the collaboration is to identify projects that support the development of new 3Rs approaches and technologies and translate the into new products and services for the drug discovery community. Early drug discovery researchers require tools that are more reflective of human biology in order to allow greater success of potential drugs in the clinic.

The NC3Rs Tools to Technologies (T2T) Research Showcase will see 11 research groups compete for a share of £200k in grant funding from NC3Rs as well as support by the Medicines Discovery Catapult.

The winning researchers will gain access to Medicine Discovery Catapult’s drug discovery expertise and suite of research technologies to help accelerate the translation of their research models into new products and services.