The Biomedical Animal Research News (BARN) Digest collates animal research news from UAR’s 150+ member organisations into one, easy to access, feed. These animal research related stories include topics such as: medical studies and advancements; animal welfare and 3Rs news; funding, regulatory, and policy news; and conservation and environmental research that involves animal testing.
Each month, we pick the most interesting, groundbreaking, and important news to feature in a monthly news roundup.
View BARN to see daily news updates from UAR members.
BASIC/DISCOVERY RESEARCH
How curiosity uncovered a special trap that steroids set for glioblastoma
CANCER RESEARCH UK | MICE
"First, they realised that high levels of N1-methylnicotinamide in glioblastomas could be used to “fingerprint” the cancer, making it easier to detect and monitor using brain scans. These scans would also work without steroids, but the drugs make the picture clearer, the way ink does for a fingerprint.
Then the team began to think through what their findings could mean for treating glioblastoma. Here, they zeroed in on methionine. Though it’s also essential for our health, methionine is easier and safer to restrict than vitamin B3, and steroids make glioblastoma cells much more reliant on it than their healthy equivalents.
In the team’s mouse models, steroids combined with an experimental low-methionine diet safely halved methionine levels in glioblastoma cells and showed signs of restricting tumour growth.
On a human level, that kind of diet would need to be specially formulated and prescribed for each patient, but it’s an exciting new approach with the potential to shut or slow down glioblastoma cells’ energy production. In the research paper’s own words, it could help create “a brain-specific metabolic state with antitumour effects for glioblastoma."
How the brain's 'memory replay' goes wrong in Alzheimer's disease
UCL | MICE
"Memory dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease may be linked to impairment in how the brain replays our recent experiences while we are resting, according to a new study in mice by UCL scientists.
For the study, the researchers were testing how well mice performed in a simple maze task, while monitoring their brain activity with sets of electrodes that could simultaneously track roughly 100 individual place cells.
The researchers say their findings, published in Current Biology, could help scientists develop drug treatments targeting this impaired brain function, or help design new tests for early diagnosis."
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2026/jan/how-brains-memory-replay-goes-wrong-alzheimers-disease
Sex hormones linked to immune responses that may help explain differences in asthma severity
IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON | MICE
"Imperial researchers have uncovered a hormone‑linked immune pathway in a mouse model that may help explain why asthma is often more severe in women than in men, particularly across periods of hormonal change.
In a study published in Science Immunology, researchers from the Lloyd and Saglani groups at Imperial’s National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI) have identified a mechanism by which the female sex hormone oestrogen can amplify allergic inflammation in the lungs. Young female mice exposed to house dust mite allergen developed significantly stronger type 2 immune responses – the kind of inflammation typically associated with asthma – including higher levels of immune signalling molecules and increased airway inflammation."
New research suggests damaged myelin can heal itself
MS SOCIETY EDINBURGH CENTRE FOR MS RESEARCH | MICE, ZEBRAFISH
"Researchers found when myelin is first damaged, it can swell up. And this swelling doesn’t automatically mean it will be lost. In fact, the study showed that swollen myelin can sometimes return to normal. Until now, myelin swelling was thought to be an artefact of the way brain tissue is preserved in the lab.
But in this study researchers used new techniques to observe living zebrafish and tissue from mice and humans who lived with MS. This meant they could follow what happens to damaged myelin over time. And confirm this swelling is a natural process in the body.
This research shows there may be two distinct processes to focus on in myelin repair:
- Making new myelin to replace damaged myelin
- Repairing damaged myelin itself
Both could be important in future treatments."
Fruit fly study reveals how mating triggers behavioural changes in females
UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER | FRUIT FLIES
"Researchers from The Universities of Manchester and Birmingham have identified the exact nerve cells in the brain that drive important behavioural changes in female fruit flies after they mate.
The discovery, published in the journal eLife today (insert date), sheds light on how animals integrate sensory information to guide reproduction and has, say the researchers, general implications on understanding the brains’ role in reproduction."
CLINICAL TRIALS AND DRUG DEVELOPMENT
First-in-class drug candidate for multiple myeloma shows promise in Phase 1 trial
IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON | MICE, DOGS
"DTP3 builds on research into a pathway (signalling process) called NF-κB, which is used by the body to mount an immune response to injury and infection, but is hijacked by cancers to promote their own survival. While NF-κB has attracted significant interest as a potential target for cancer drugs since the 1990s, candidates designed to inhibit it have disappointed due to serious side effects.
But research by Professor Franzoso and colleagues has raised hope that some cancers could be treated instead by targeting a key survival mechanism located downstream of NF-κB.
The team found that most myelomas use NF-κB to upregulate a protein called GADD45β, which binds to protein kinase MKK7 to prevent apoptosis, the execution of genetic instructions that tell cancer cells to self-destruct. The research showed that the GADD45β/MKK7 complex is critical to the survival of these cancer cells, but not to healthy cells.
These insights led to the development of DTP3, a small molecule GADD45β/MKK7 inhibitor, which in pre-clinical tests proved effective at selectively killing cancer in animal models and myeloma cells from patients, without harming healthy cells."
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6502747/
REPLACING ANIMALS IN RESEARCH
Engineered moths could replace mice in research into “one of the biggest threats to human health"
UNIVERSITY OF EXETER | MOTHS
"A scientific breakthrough not only promises faster testing for antimicrobial resistance, but also an ethical solution to the controversial issue of using rodents in research.
University of Exeter scientists have created the world’s first genetically engineered wax moths – a development which could both accelerate the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and significantly reduce the need for mice and rats in infection research.
The study, published in Nature Lab Animal, outlines how Exeter researchers have developed powerful new genetic tools for the greater wax moth (Galleria Mellonella). This small insect is increasingly recognised as a cost-effective, ethically sustainable alternative to mammals."
UK research institutions unite to advance non-animal technologies for veterinary research
MOREDUN | FARM ANIMALS
"Supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, four leading UK research institutions – The Pirbright Institute, Moredun Research Institute, The Roslin Institute, and the Royal Veterinary College – have joined forces to develop and validate novel laboratory-based models for studying animal health and disease.
The collaborative initiative aims to strengthen research on non-animal technologies to reduce or replace the use of farmed animals in research, where feasible. To support the adoption of such models, researchers will explore how reliably and reproducibly they replicate the features of cells and tissues within animals.
The project will extend research on cell-based models (e.g., by obtaining different cell types from stem cells), multicellular models (e.g., organoids and co-cultures that contain mixtures of cell types found in different organs), and more complex models based on tissue slices or cultures with an air-liquid interface. The team will focus on new and improved resources for pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, and fish, including validation of these as biologically relevant platforms for studying infection and immunity.
Where possible, protocols will be harmonised to support cross-species comparability and reproducibility across institutions and the wider veterinary research community."
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Last edited: 26 February 2026 09:52
