Biotech company InSphero has joined forces with the Washington-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine to launch an award aimed at generating new research findings. As a press release explains, the HUMAIN program (Human Advanced In Vitro Model Initiative) will provide five academic research groups with InSphero’s best products, worth $20,000, to further the development or validation of 3D in vitro models. This will in turn reduce dependency on animal testing in scientific research.
Additional grants are also being made available for conference presentations and open-source publications of up to $4,500 per team, in order to publicize the research findings. All award-winners will receive training at the outset and ongoing scientific support from InSphero’s 3D cell-culture experts. Applications can be submitted up to August 23.
“We are thrilled to collaborate with InSphero in a shared goal to replace animal testing with more precise, reliable, and scalable research methods,” comments Elizabeth Baker, director of research policy at the Physicians Committee, in the press release. According to InSphero CEO Jan Lichtenberg, the company is “integrating our advanced 3D in vitro technology with the groundbreaking work of academic groups”. This means InSphero is “not just taking a step towards more human-focused research practices”, but “making a leap.”
InSphero is a spin-off from the University of Zurich (UZH) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH), and is based in the Bio-Technopark Schlieren-Zurich.
