Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT)

Mark your calendars! CAAT, along with the Animal-free Safety Assessment Collaboration (AFSA), is hosting its annual meeting ‘21st Century Toxicology: Updates and News’ on March 20th, 2025 at 12:30 EDT. Join us for insightful presentations and conversations on the current state and the future of toxicology, with experts and enthusiasts from across the globe. If you register by February 25th, 2025, you will receive a free lunch during the event! To learn more and to register, please visit: https://lnkd.in/gUEbf4yX #CAAT #AFSA #Toxicology #STEM #3Rs #HumaneScience #Research

Excited to share our review on "Sex-specific effects of environmental pollutants on pulmonary immune responses." Despite all the current directives to ban words such as "#women" and "#female" in federally funded research, research on the differences in immune and other health responses across the sexes does matter! Limited time full access here: https://lnkd.in/evDjcjm7 #ScienceMatters

Federal funding powers groundbreaking research at The Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, to celebrate and educate on this #JHU is launching a new story series - #ResearchMatters. Thanks to #NIH support, JHU researchers have been conducting an extensive study on gene-environment interactions in autism, potentially improving countless lives, for over two decades. As part of this effort, CAAT's own Thomas Hartung and Lena Smirnova have developed complimentary brain organoid technology, which allows for ethical and precise testing of environmental factors on neurodevelopment. The collaborative effort outlined in this article showcases how public investment in science can drive meaningful progress in understanding complex conditions like autism. For the full article click the 🔗 below.

Happening SOON ➡️ Toxicology for the 21st Century Annual Satellite Meeting! Join CAAT and Animal-Free Safety Assessment Collaboration for our annual 21st Century Toxicology event at #SOT2025! The event will be held on Thursday, March 20 from 12:30 - 4:30 pm in the Orange County Convention Center, West Concourse, Room W102AB, West Building, Level 1. Boxed lunch will be provided to all who register by February 25, 2025. To register, please use the link below. See you in March! 👋 ☀️

Please join us in congratulating Alexandra Maertens on her recent appointment as Assistant Professor! We at CAAT are thrilled to celebrate this career milestone—especially at a time when the expertise of data scientists and machine learning specialists with decades of rigorous research experience is more critical than ever. Dr. Maertens has already led an esteemed career, with teaching appointments at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Brandeis University, and Pennsylvania Institute of Technology, along with more than two decades of research, mentorship, and regular authorship at the Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing. As she steps into her new role, focusing on AI and machine learning in the context of safety testing, we would like to extend our sincerest thanks to an anonymous donor and the School of Public Health leadership for making this appointment a priority—especially in today's rapidly evolving landscape of computation, data, and evidence-based research. CONGRATULATIONS, ALEX!

Animal-free testing methods are making an impact in drug safety assessment, but they’re still a long way from widespread use in the scientific community. CAAT director Thomas Hartung met with Technology Networks to discuss the potential these new testing methods have, as well as the challenges they face. To read the article, visit: https://lnkd.in/gfjUAn_5 #NewApproachMethodologies #CAAT #TechnologyNetworks #AI #HumaneScience #3Rs

A huge thank you to Safer Medicines Trust for their spot-on article exposing the disturbing misuse of nonhuman animals to study social crimes like child abuse and male violence against women. These horrific experiments do nothing for human victims and only serve to shift focus away from the real causes —deeply rooted structural inequalities and systemic injustices. Reducing these complex social issues to neurological disorders or “modifiable behaviors” is not just absurd, it actively diverts critical resources from real solutions: education, prevention, support systems, and policy change. It is appalling that such studies were even approved, let alone funded. This is yet another example of how animal research fails both science and society. We must demand better — because real change for victims will never come from inflicting suffering on animals in a lab. #EndAnimalTesting #EthicsInScience #HumanRelevantResearch #ProtectVictimsNotPerpetuateViolence #RealSolutionsNotSuffering #SocialJustice #ScienceIntegrity #StopAnimalCruelty

NEXUS is proud to support the inaugural Exposome Moonshot Forum occurring May 12th through 15th in Washington, D.C.! The Exposome Moonshot Forum is plotting the future of the Human Exposome. This forum aims to gather diverse stakeholders of industry, academia, and government to collaboratively identify new goals, clarify next steps, and translate the exposome from concept to utility. A central feature of the forum will be smaller discussions targeting key focus areas within the field of exposomics such as:  - A Roadmap towards the Human Exposome Project - Exposome & Enabling Technologies - Exposome & AI - Exposome, Environmental Justice & Ethics - Global Organization of the Exposome Moonshot   If you are interested in attending, please submit your details as soon as possible as the forum is filling up quickly! Register and learn more: https://lnkd.in/g7VvycyV The Moonshot Organizing Committee: Fenna Sillé, PhD, Thomas Hartung, MD, PhD, Gary W. Miller, PhD, David Balshaw, PhD, Nicole Kleinstreuer, PhD, Danilo Tagle, PhD, Rima Habre, ScD, Chirag Patel, PhD, Srikanth Nadadur, PhD, Sophie Thuault-Restituito, PhD, L. Michelle Bennett, PhD, Camila Sgrignoli Januario, Anwyn Statnick and Eliza Cole.   #HumanExposomeProject #ExposomeMoonshot #Exposomics #ResearchInnovation #BloombergCenter

CAAT Director Thomas Hartung recently co-authored an article about the ways in which medicinal plans and other forms of traditional medicine can support modern, evidence-based medicine when it comes to treating long COVID patients. To read the full article, please visit: https://lnkd.in/gP6EvDkC #CAAT #COVID #FrontiersIn #Research #Medicine #STEM #Research

There are currently over 80,000 chemical substances federally approved for use in food, cosmetics, and more everyday products. However, many of those substances have yet to be rigorously tested. Effective safety tests take considerable time and money. How can regulators test all these chemicals in an effective and timely manner? CAAT Director Thomas Hartung spoke to The Scientist about this issue, and how AI might be incorporated into the process. To read the full article, please visit: https://lnkd.in/gm5H79N9 #CAAT #TheScientist #Toxicology #AI #STEM