NAMs - Beyond animal testing
(please see Guide 8 of our Facebook group for more on NAMs)
Welcome to the future of research. Here, you'll discover how new approach methodologies (NAMs) are revolutionising science and offering a more ethical, reliable, and efficient path forward. Join Wales Against Animal Experiments in advocating for modern, human-relevant research methods
What are NAMs?
New approach methodologies (NAMs), also known as non-animal methods, represent state-of-the-art technologies grounded in human biology. These cutting-edge approaches offer a more accurate and ethical alternative to traditional animal testing.
NAMs encompass a wide range of techniques and can be put into 3 main categories:
In vitro - using human cells or tissues cultured outside the body
In silico - computer based methods
In chemico - using non biological methods to assess chemical reactivity of substances, often without the use of cells or tissues
Each of the above categories encompasses a range of different methods.
Other techniques such as human micro-dosing, non-invasive imaging and advanced molecular techniques fall outside such categorisation, as do human simulators.
Epidemiology, the study of the distribution and determinants of disease in human populations, often via statistical analysis, is an established non-animal method which successfully demonstrated the link between smoking and lung cancer which decades of research using dogs failed to do.
'Among the most popular NAMs today are organ-on-chip platforms (OOC), organoids and spheroids that use live cells and functional tissues [in vitro methods], and generative AI-driven in silico models that yield novel insights from patterns learned from massive datasets, including predicting toxicity of chemical structures and biological materials. Large scale studies have shown that NAMs outperform conventional animal models in predicting DILI (or drug-induced liver injury) a key barrier in drug discovery' - 'Path dependency and the rescuing of the biomedical research enterprise' by Dr Zaher Nahle
Excerpt from our 2025 leaflet on animal experiments
Various contexts in which NAMs confer marked advantage over conventional research models, including animal models
'Path dependency and the rescuing of the biomedical research enterprise' by Dr Zaher Nahle
History of Organ Chips / Organs-on-a chip (from Emulate's website)
In the early 2000s, researchers Dan Huh and Shuichi Takayama were interested in seeing whether they could model excess fluid accumulation, which occurs in diseased lungs, in an in vitro model. So, they created the first Organ-on-a-Chip system designed to mimic the airways of the lung. Donald Ingber , M.D., Sc.D., from the Wyss Institute [for Biologically Inspired Engineering] at Harvard, attended a presentation by Dr. Takayama and was amazed to hear the device make the same “crackle” sound he had learned to listen for to identify fluid in patients’ lungs—a phenomenon that remained poorly understood due to the inaccessibility of lungs for research.
Ingber invited Huh to his lab, and in 2010, they successfully created the first Lung-Chip capable of emulating breathing motions. Following this success, Ingber and his team used funding (…) to develop more than 15 Organ-on-a-Chip models, including ones for the intestine, kidney, skin, bone marrow, and the blood-brain barrier. In 2014, Ingber founded Emulate [a biotechnology company] to commercialize Organ-on-a-Chip technology.
Since then, Organ-Chips have progressed tremendously in quality, availability, and adoption.
Emulates Liver-Chip demonstrated 87% sensitivity and 100% specificity in predicting drug-induced liver injury (DILI), significantly outperforming animal models [2022]
Organ-on-a-Chip technology is a powerful preclinical model that can give pharmaceutical, academic, government, and other scientists better insights into human biology and disease mechanisms. By precisely replicating the biology and function of an organ, Organ-Chips overcome many of the issues with traditional preclinical models, giving drug developers confidence in progressing drugs to human trials. Ultimately, this will help create more efficient drug development pipelines—and, most importantly, better, safer medicines for patients.
2025: A Pivotal Year for NAMs and the Top 10 Organ-Chip Publications Supporting Their Adoption - Emulate blog
Follow this link to read Emulate's blog diving into why 2025 marked a true turning point for NAMs—and what it means for real-world adoption of Organ-on-a-Chip technology.
2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Demis Hassabis and John Jumper
They were recognized for their work on protein structure prediction using artificial intelligence. Specifically, they developed AlphaFold2, a revolutionary AI model that solved a 50-year-old challenge by predicting the three-dimensional structures of almost all known proteins - no animals required. See below and follow link to post on Facebook
Cardiff Uni part of pan-European network advancing human-relevant neuroscience tools beyond animal models
VISI-ON-BRAIN (Cutting-edge Human In Vitro and In Silico Biomedical Tools on Brain Disorders), is a Horizon Europe project, receiving ~ €4.5 million in funding. Over four years (2026–2029), the European consortium will train 15 doctoral researchers to develop and apply next-generation human in vitro (lab based) and in silico (computer based) approaches for complex brain disorders, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s disease. King's College London and Cardiff University are the British participants in the project. Link to announcement
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