Efficient development of drugs with fewer mice
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 9-Sep-2025 16:17 ET (9-Sep-2025 20:17 GMT/UTC)
New active ingredients such as antibodies are usually tested individually in laboratory animals. Researchers at UZH have now developed a technology that can be used to test around 25 antibodies simultaneously in a single mouse. This should not only speed up the research and development pipeline for new drugs, but also hugely reduce the number of laboratory animals required.
Researchers from the University of Adelaide have discovered that the earliest days of embryo development have a measurable impact on a person’s future health and ageing.
Although fungi of the genus Piloderma are common, scientists have now discovered five previously unknown species. One of these is one of the most widely distributed species in Northern Europe, while another is found only in old-growth forests. The discoveries, published in Fungal Biology, show that diversity in this genus is much greater than previously thought and that some of its species are at risk of disappearing as old-growth forest is logged.
A new study in Brain Medicine explores how maternal immune activation (MIA) affects hippocampal neuron function in newborn rat offspring. The research demonstrates that MIA significantly alters neuronal excitability, reducing glutamatergic neurotransmission—a crucial factor in neurodevelopmental disorders. These findings provide critical insights into how prenatal infections may increase the risk of autism, schizophrenia, and depression.
While some captive birds have been reported to be able to imitate human-made sounds, such as human words and coughs, ornithologists from China first quantitatively described human-made sounds, the sounds of electric mopeds, imitated by Chinese Blackbirds living in the wild.