3Rs Hub

In 2021, the CBS department has created a new Hub for the 3Rs at Imperial College London. The primary aim of the Hub is to continue Imperial College’s drive towards becoming world-leader for its 3Rs activities, and influence the Imperial Culture of Care. 

To promotes best practices and applications of the 3Rs to fulfil our long-term commitment in replacing the use of animals in scientific research, the Imperial 3RsHub launched a dedicated website to give Imperial staff, students, and external stakeholders easy access to educational material and resources to implement the 3Rs in their work.

Below you can find a few examples of the 3RsHub initiatives. To know more and subscribe to our mailing-list, visit the 3RsHub dedicated website. 

 

3Rs initiatives widget

3Rs Training

We have developed a series of training activities to help animal care staff and researchers continuously refine and improve their knowledge in applying 3Rs principles.

Courses

  • Introduction to the 3Rs for new starters

    We offer a general introduction about 3Rs principles to all researcher and staff start working with animals at Imperial.

  • Experimental design and power analysis for in-vivo scientists

    We run twice a year a course focused on using statistics and experimental design for in vivo studies.  

Seminars

We organize seminar series and dedicated workshops in collaboration with internal and external stakeholders.

 
 
3Rs Initiatives

We want to help to improve the internal and external visibility of the 3Rs activities that take place at Imperial. therefore we have established a series of initiatives to improve the reduction and refinement of the animal used in our facilities. 

  • Sharing resources

We have developed a systematic approach to sharing resources within College. We are implementing the current animal management software to allow researchers within the different campuses to share animal resources from the units they work within. This initiative will enable better use of the resources and implement a 3Rs approach to animals’ use.

 

  • Technician led projects

We work closely with the Environmental Enrichment Committee to scientifically and financially support 3Rs projects conceived from or involving CBS staff.

 

3Rs Studentships
Imperial College commitment towards the 3Rs is highlighted from the number of 3Rs projects awarded PhD studentships in the previous years. We are now working with the Imperial College graduated school to include a specific 3Rs remit in the President’s PhD studentships scheme to expand the portfolio of research projects with 3Rs objectives at their core.
Examples of current President's PhD students with a 3Rs-oriented project
"My project aims to develop novel in vitro models of pulmonary arteries based on medical imaging and using 3D printing methods. Animal models of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) are currently limited and do not fully replicate the pathobiology of the disease. My devices will be addressing these gaps, thus reducing the need for animal studies and providing a potential platform for personalised medicine". (Salina Nicoleau, Wojciak-Stothard Group - National Heart and Lung Institute)
"The aim of my work is to replace animal-derived antibodies in diagnostic and therapeutic applications with synthetic alternatives, in the form of molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) nanoparticles. These plastic antibodies are low cost, easy to produce, highly customizable and require no animal-derived materials in order to achieve similar affinity and specificity to their natural counterparts". (Stanislav Piletsky, Spivey Group - Department of Chemistry)