At the University of Washington, we champion the principles of the 3Rs in our work. The 3Rs are: Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement.
Replacement: replacement of an animal model with a model that does not use animals.
Ex: rodent health monitoring done by PCR, human cell-based microphysiological systems evaluating organ metabolism/toxicity (‘organs on a chip’), in silico systems to provide training and modeling, computer modeling.
Reduction: reducing (or optimizing) the number of animals used to address a scientific question.
Ex: animal cell-based microphysiological systems, ensuring proper experimental design and statistical analysis to use the minimum number of animals necessary, utilization of controls for more than one treatment group, data sharing, tissue sharing.
Refinement: refining our interactions with the animals to decrease pain and distress associated with the use of animals in research.
Ex: analgesic administration, positive reinforcement training, environmental enrichment, providing naturalistic environment for the animals, alternative ways of doing injections/fluid collection, acupuncture.
Pilot funding
Pilot funding is being made available to validate a question that addresses the 3Rs. To learn more about funding, including eligibility, please visit the Office of Animal Welfare’s 3Rs Pilot Funding website.
First steps towards our 3Rs goals:
The IO, OAW Director, and others are working to create a center focused on the 3Rs at UW. As a first step towards this broader goal, we’ve established a 3Rs Pilot Funding program that aims to support work on the replacement, reduction, and/or refinement of the use of animals in research. This funding mechanism will provide up to $10,000 for up to 5 proposals. Funding for this program was generously provided by the Provost and Vice Provost for Research. Our 3Rs committee solicited applications this past fall. We received a total of 13 applications, and after review and much discussion selected the 5 winning proposals. As part of receiving this funding these groups will present the results of their work at a 3Rs symposium that is planned for June.
The winning projects include:
- One that will explore whether mice prefer to recover from surgery alone or in the company of another mouse.
- One that will create a circulatory system on a chip to study hemorrhagic shock, eventually replacing animal models.
- One that will harness the power of AI to accurately identify cell cycle stage without the need for genetically modified mice or specialized stains, reducing animal numbers.
- One that aims to refine a common procedure with the novel localization of a nerve block.
- One that will develop an in vitro model of human testes to replace the use of rodents to study sperm function and reproductive toxicology
Making the 3Rs: More than a checkbox
Enjoy a catchy take on Russell and Burch’s 3Rs from the AALAS 2023 National Meeting.