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EARA Newsletter

29 de Dezembro de 2025

EARA News Digest 2026 - Week 1


Welcome to your Monday morning update, from EARA, on the latest news in biomedical science, policy and openness on animal research. 

This week: The top stories of 2025 from EARA; Atlas reveals brain cell diversity in mice and marmoset brains; Anti-inflammatory drugs prolong breast cancer therapy in mice.
 

The top stories of 2025 from EARA 

As the end of the year approaches, we reflect on the remarkable scientific discoveries made in 2025 across various fields, ensuring that all methodologies, including the use of animals, are integrated into the most contemporary biomedical research. 

Here is a selection of the most-read research news from 2025 from EARA’s website:

1) In Spain, researchers at CNIO and CSIC developed an ultra-thin light probe that can penetrate deeply into the brains of mice and detect changes caused by tumours or brain injuries.
“This technology allows us to study the brain in its natural state without the need for prior alteration… The difference with existing technology is that we can now perform this analysis in a minimally invasive way, regardless of whether the tumour is superficial or deep,” said Manuel Valiente, senior author of the study published in Nature Methods, at CNIO.

 
2) A game-changing painkiller – the first in 30 years that is not based on potentially addictive opioids – was approved in February by regulators in the US. Suzetrigine, marketed as Journavx by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, is a new painkiller to treat acute pain. Animal studies with rats and mice were the first to show that suzetrigine could block pain signalling in the gastrointestinal tract. Many other similar studies, including those using monkeys, also examined its safety and effectiveness.
 
3) Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science, in Israel, discovered that human cells can naturally produce compounds that kill bacteria and fight infections in mice. The proteosome, a cellular waste disposal system, generates small protein fragments that have antibiotic action. This discovery, published in Nature, may open the door to future treatments that are alternatives to antibiotics in the fight against drug-resistant bacteria.
 
4) In August, a transplant of genetically altered pancreatic cells was tested for the first time in a human, allowing a patient with type 1 diabetes to produce their own insulin. In type 1 diabetes, a lifelong condition, the immune system destroys a type of pancreatic cell that makes insulin. Researchers from Sana Biotechnology, a US-based company, used CRISPR gene editing technology to modify pancreatic cells, removing the proteins that trigger the immune system to recognise and attack them. The treatment was first tested in mice and monkeys. This year, it was given to a 42-year-old man with long-standing type 1 diabetes, in a first-in-human study led by EARA member Uppsala University. Four months after the procedure, the gene-edited transplanted cells were still producing insulin without provoking an immune response or significant side effects.
 
5) In September, uniQure announced a groundbreaking therapy for Huntington’s disease that slowed disease progression by 75% in human clinical trials.  
The therapy AMT-130 involves delivering a virus that instructs brain cells to block production of the huntingtin protein in Huntington’s patients. Accumulation of the defective huntingtin protein in the brain is a hallmark of the disease, as is motor impairment and cognitive decline.
“My patients in the trial are stable over time…, and one of them is my only medically retired Huntington’s disease patient who has been able to go back to work,” said Ed Wild, clinical researcher at University College London.
This breakthrough was only possible due to numerous years of preclinical research, including studies in brain cells from Huntington’s patients and studies using mice, pigs, rats and monkeys, essential to inform the design of the therapy and its efficacy.

 

 
 

Atlas reveals brain cell diversity in mice and marmoset brains 

Researchers in the US created a detailed atlas showing how astrocytes, star-shaped support cells in the brain, differ across brain regions, animal species and life stages. The atlas will help to understand how these cells influence brain development, function and disease.

The team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology analysed 1.4 million brain cells from mice and marmosets across six stages of life, from embryo to old age. They focused on four key brain regions:  

  • prefrontal cortex, involved in decision-making and planning 
  • motor cortex, which controls movement  
  • striatum, linked to reward and motivation  
  • thalamus, a hub for sensory processing.  

By examining which genes were active in different astrocytes, the researchers showed that astrocytes are highly specialised. Cells from different brain regions displayed unique patterns of gene activity, with the greatest changes occurring between birth and early adolescence. 

While mice and marmosets shared broad similarities, important differences were found between species. For example, astrocytes in marmosets appeared more mature at birth than those in mice. This suggests that brain cells develop at different speeds across species, meaning findings from mice cannot always be directly translated to primates or humans. The results highlight the importance of considering both age and species when studying brain cells and brain diseases. 

"It's really important for us to pay attention to non-neuronal cells' role in health and disease," said Guoping Feng from MIT, lead author of the study published in Neuron.  

 

 
 
 

Anti-inflammatory drugs prolong breast cancer therapy in mice   

A study in the Netherlands has discovered that corticosteroids, widely used anti-inflammatory drugs, may prolong the effect of hormone therapy for breast cancer in mice. 

Most breast cancers are responsive to the hormones progesterone and oestrogen, and women receive hormone therapy to block cancer growth and suppress the disease. However, cancer can become resistant to therapy, requiring more intensive treatments such as chemotherapy. 

Researchers from the EARA member Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) were intrigued by a discovery from the University of Genoa, Italy, showing that patients on a low-calorie diet may respond better to hormone therapy.  

In collaboration with the study leaders and Oncode Institute, Netherlands, they found that, in mice with breast cancer responsive to hormones and patients’ blood, a restrictive diet led to a rise in cortisol, a natural corticosteroid produced in response to stress.  

In mice, the researchers found that fasting activates genes responsive to cortisol in cancer cells, increasing the efficacy of hormone therapy. The effects of fasting could be mimicked by dexamethasone, another clinically used corticosteroid. 

“These findings suggest that we may have uncovered a new application for this widely used and inexpensive medication, which may be able to replace or delay more intensive, expensive treatments,” said Wilbert Zwart, co-leader of the study published in Nature and researcher at NKI.

A phase II clinical trial at NKI Hospital will begin in 2026, enrolling 80 patients with breast cancer who no longer respond to hormone therapy. Along with this therapy, patients will be treated with dexamethasone.  

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