Advancing Biomedical Research: The Critical Role of Novel Alternative Methods (NAMs) in Replacing Animal Models in Pharmaceutical Research
A special issue of Pharmaceutics (ISSN 1999-4923). This special issue belongs to the section "Gene and Cell Therapy".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 February 2025 | Viewed by 79
Special Issue Editor
Interests: exosomes; tumor microenvironment; gold nanoparticles; cancer diagnostics; cancer therapy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Non-animal-based methodologies for toxicologic screening and development of novel pharmaceutical drugs, also called “novel alternative methods” or NAMs, can complement or even replace traditional animal models, implementing the 3Rs policy (replacement, reduction, and refinement) for the use of animals in experimentation. These NAMs can also more accurately mimic human biology, a well-known drawback of animal models. In 2024, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched the “Complement Animal Research in Experimentation (Complement-ARIE) Program”, which aimed to develop NAMs to accelerate development in these fields. In the EU, the implementation of the 3R policy has been mandatory since 2010, delegating in the European Centre for the Validation of Alternatives (ECVAM), founded in 1991, the promotion of the development, dissemination, and acceptance of NAMs from basic research to regulatory testing purposes. With this issue, we want to highlight the importance of these NAMs in biomedical and pharmaceutics, highlighting important advances made using NEMs, such as those made with 2D models of cells, tissues, and cell cultures, 3D models such as 3D cell and tissue cultures, toxicity testing using computational and mathematical models, non-invasive diagnostic imaging, stem cell research, etc., or novel breakthroughs in the development of NAMs per se.
Dr. Luís R. Raposo
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- 3R policy
- 2D models using cell lines, cell and tissue culture
- 3D models of cell and tissue culture
- organs-on-a-chip
- stem cell research
- computational and mathematical models
- non-invasive diagnostic imaging
- stem cell research
- toxicology
- drug delivery systems
- drug delivery
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