Emily R. Trunnell, Ph.D.
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ertrunnell.bsky.social
Emily R. Trunnell, Ph.D.
@ertrunnell.bsky.social
1.1K followers 780 following 1.2K posts
neuroscientist 🧠 | Director @ https://www.scienceadvancement.org/ | Moving U.S. biomedical research toward humans & away from other animals | she/her/hers
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ertrunnell.bsky.social
💉 UpSurgeOn’s hyper-realistic spine deformity simulator:

✅ Avoids the use of live animals
✅ Is cadaver-free
✅ Offers trainees the experience of working with bleeding tissue
✅ Integrates mixed reality
✅ Is compatible with mobile X-ray

www.upsurgeon.com/spine-deform...

#MedEd #Medsky
Spine Deformity
Spine Deformity is an advanced platform featuring complex spinal surgery cases, engineered to replicate the biomechanical challenges of correction.
www.upsurgeon.com
November 25, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Reposted by Emily R. Trunnell, Ph.D.
thecolaab.bsky.social
We summarized our analysis of NIH-funded neuroscience research: study sections dominated by experts in animal-based research, correlating with fewer funded non-animal projects and underscoring the need for diverse expertise in review groups. doi.org/10.1101/2025...

#neuroskyence
Predominance of animal-based expertise may bias NIH neuroscience grant review: A pilot study with implications for non-animal methodologies
Despite increased enthusiasm for research methods that can replace the use of animals, the numbers of animals used in science and the funding for animal-based projects remain high. Our work addresses ...
doi.org
November 25, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Reposted by Emily R. Trunnell, Ph.D.
thecolaab.bsky.social
Last week, we offered our assistance to #NIH officials in advancing the agency's goal of reforming grant review to better prioritize human-based research.

We also recommended additional steps the agency could take to further mitigate #AnimalMethodsBias in the review process.

#grantreview #scipol
November 25, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Reposted by Emily R. Trunnell, Ph.D.
thecolaab.bsky.social
We were honored to receive @lushprize.bsky.social's Major Science Collaboration prize last year. Excited to see this year's nominees!
lushprize.bsky.social Lush Prize @lushprize.bsky.social · 1d
Check out the Lush Prize for Major Science Collaboration and nominate your project by Friday: lushprize.org/nominate-ent...
November 25, 2025 at 1:45 AM
ertrunnell.bsky.social
💡Planning to publish on the use of animals in medical or surgical training?

We’ve created a new resource listing journals that accept papers on this topic.

Let us know if we missed any!

www.scienceadvancement.org/resources/me...

#MedEd #MedSky #SurgSky #SurgEd
Medical Training Resources - Science Advancement and Outreach Division
Companies and papers describing non-animal simulation models for surgical and procedural medical training
www.scienceadvancement.org
November 25, 2025 at 1:42 AM
ertrunnell.bsky.social
"Given all the progress that has been made in recent years, it’s not too hard to imagine a future without animal testing." - @jesshamzelou.bsky.social for MIT Technology Review

www.technologyreview.com/2025/11/14/1...

🧪 #NAMs
These technologies could help put a stop to animal testing
Advanced in organs on chips, digital twins, and AI are ushering in a new era of research and drug development.
www.technologyreview.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:49 PM
ertrunnell.bsky.social
In this preprint, @stanford.edu scientists present Hybprinter, a 3D hybrid #bioprinting platform that combines soft hydrogels with rigid biomaterials in a single, continuous process.

@bioe-stanford.bsky.social
@stanfordmedicine.bsky.social

🧪
Figure 1 from the linked preprint, “3D Hybrid Bioprinting for Complex Multi-Tissue Engineering,” by Alizadeh et al. The caption reads: “Overview of the 3D hybrid bioprinting approach and applications. (A) Photograph of the Hybprinter with an inset schematic of the printing chamber displaying the MME and multi-hydrogel DLP-SLA modules, alongside sample prints showing potential applications in tissue modeling and therapeutics. (B) Layer-by-layer hybrid fabrication process and schematic representation of a hybrid multi-hydrogel construct. (C) Step-by-step illustration of hybrid bioprinting in progress. (D) Hybrid print showcadsing multi-lydrogel Stanford logo integrated into a hard scaffold. (E, F) Multi-hydrogel sample print of the Stanford logo composed of three colored PEGDMA hydrogels.”
November 24, 2025 at 12:58 AM
ertrunnell.bsky.social
🚨 BREAKING: The CDC will end all experiments on monkeys.

Fate of ~200 macaques is uncertain, but an agency representative recently contacted a sanctuary: "He wanted to know how many monkeys we could take immediately ... and whether it would be possible to retire all of them within a year."
November 21, 2025 at 5:13 PM
ertrunnell.bsky.social
Animal testing: "expensive, slow, and often poorly predictive of human outcomes."

But with ORIVA, "NIH is signaling that the era of ‘animals first’ is giving way to something far more aligned with human biology and patient needs."

www.genengnews.com/topics/trans...

#NAMs 🧪
A Future Beyond Animal Testing: Why ORIVA Matters and How Computational Models Bridge the Gap
Animal testing is costly, slow, and poorly predictive. ORIVA offers a human-relevant alternative with the potential to change that.
www.genengnews.com
November 20, 2025 at 4:47 PM
ertrunnell.bsky.social
"The center of gravity in drug development is shifting from animal-first to human-relevant by design."

@insphero.bsky.social CSO Madhu Nag talks paradigm shifts and changing gears from proof to implementation.

🔗 insphero.com/human-centri...

#NAMs 🧪
Table from the linked November 12th InSphero article, “The Human-Centric Mandate: Why NIH and FDA’s Coordinated Push Makes Standardized 3D Models the New Default,” showing a “Timeline of Key Milestones Driving the Rise of Non-Animal In Vitro Testing,” including how the default paradigm, regulatory mindset, and scientific focus have shifted from animal-based to NAMs-based between 1938 and 2025.
November 20, 2025 at 1:40 PM
ertrunnell.bsky.social
🍼 Milk: good for babies… and organoids too?

Majood & Rao argue human milk—a living fluid rich in cells, bioactive molecules, & microbiome—could transform lactation biology & contamination research.

💡It's also a vital cell source for the development of 3D mammary #organoid models. 🧪
A dark purple, magenta, and white graphic with the following quote: “"[S]tudies on lactation historically rely heavily on animal models which fail to fully recapitulate human lactation physiology, or on healthy breast tissue that is difficult to obtain, especially during lactation, and has limited scalability. Differences between human and animal models include the number and location of mammary glands, the timing and trajectory of mammary gland development, and the composition of milk." The quote is attributed to the linked paper by Misba Majood & Rajini Rao in Pediatric Research, 2025. On the left, a photo of an infant nursing at their mother’s breast.
November 20, 2025 at 1:33 PM
ertrunnell.bsky.social
Nice perspective by @unpopularscience.bsky.social in @currentaffairs.bsky.social.

Debates on AI consciousness persist, yet the scientific consensus on animal consciousness is robust & necessitates a change in assumptions.

#bioethics #animalrights
Screenshot from the September 29, 2025 article by Spencer Roberts, "Why All Animals Are Sentient, and Machines Never Will Be," showing the following excerpt: "Mirror tests are inherently biased toward visual species with appendages to gesture or facial musculature to convey reactions. Even still, animals from red ants to cleaner wrasses are now considered to have passed, challenging us to examine our default assumption, or null hypothesis, that other animals are unconscious or unfeeling until proven otherwise. Instead, considering that no animal has ever been proven to lack consciousness, evidence is far more robust for a new paradigm: assuming that all other animals are self-aware."
November 19, 2025 at 5:23 PM
ertrunnell.bsky.social
👩‍⚕️👨‍⚕️ @imrasurgical.bsky.social is driving the future of robotic surgery training.

Their high-fidelity simulation models mimic real tissue, including feel, bleeding, & instrument response, without the use of live animals.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjMf...

#MedSky #MedEd #SurgSky #SurgEd
The Future of Surgical Training is Animal-Free
YouTube video by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)
www.youtube.com
November 19, 2025 at 5:06 PM
ertrunnell.bsky.social
Last week, the UK released its "Replacing animals in science" roadmap.

In the SAO graphics in this 🧵, I've broken down the strategy's impact on animal use for basic & translational research, compared it with NIH's actions & promises, & highlighted critical gaps & flaws.

#scipol 🧪
November 18, 2025 at 5:24 PM
ertrunnell.bsky.social
Nice perspective by Kim et al. of @ucdavisengineering.bsky.social on how #microfluidics make an ideal model for the human gut-brain axis due to their architecture & flow control capabilities.

In @aip-publishing.bsky.social
pubs.aip.org/aip/bmf/arti...

🧪 #organonchip #gutbrainaxis #neuroskyence
Microfluidic tools to model, monitor, and modulate the gut–brain axis
The gut–brain axis (GBA) connects the gastrointestinal tract and the central nervous system (CNS) via the peripheral nervous system and humoral (e.g., circulato
pubs.aip.org
November 17, 2025 at 1:25 PM
ertrunnell.bsky.social
Deadline coming up! ⌛

The #NIH Common Fund is seeking applicants to carry out pilot studies that advance the Human Virome Program.

#virome #virology #funding #grant #NIHfunding
Dark red, pastel cyan, and vivid light red graphic with cartoons of viruses and cells and stacks of papers with bullseyes. The text reads: “National Institutes of Health Pilot Projects to Enhance the Human Virome Program. Submission deadline: November 24, Review period: March – May 2026, Earliest start date: July 2026. RFA-RM-25-006.”
November 17, 2025 at 3:59 AM
ertrunnell.bsky.social
Join us!

@amdiabetesassn.bsky.social, @thejdca.bsky.social, @play.breakthrought1d.org, @diabetessisters.bsky.social, @worlddiabetesfoundation.org, @endocrinesociety.bsky.social, @easdnews.bsky.social, @diabeteschat.bsky.social, @drwf.bsky.social

#DiabetesLife #DiabetesChat
ertrunnell.bsky.social Emily R. Trunnell, Ph.D. @ertrunnell.bsky.social · 12d
Diabetes affects about 16% of U.S. adults, with millions more unaware they have the condition.

With such a heavy health and economic burden, advancing research that truly reflects human biology has never been more critical.

#WorldDiabetesDay #DiabetesDay #DiabetesAwareness #T1D #T2D #GD

🧪 🧵
Aqua blue, dark blue, and white graphic with a photo of a person’s hands as they check their blood sugar with a glucose monitor. The text reads: “World Diabetes Day. Why human-based diabetes research is the sweet spot for progress. November 14, 2025. After decades of detours through animal models that fail to reflect human diabetes, research policies must modernize to prioritize funding and infrastructure for human-based science.” Also includes the SAO logo and blue plus signs.
November 14, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by Emily R. Trunnell, Ph.D.
melaniedgkaplan.bsky.social
My first article in @theatlantic.com! The current administration has been surprisingly vocal about reducing the number of animals in research, but we don’t know how many animals are currently living in laboratories. Every animal counts. #animalresearch, #animals
theatlantic.com The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 12d
The Trump administration says it wants to greatly reduce animal experimentation in the United States. Melanie D.G. Kaplan reports on why tracking the actual effects of its plans will be difficult:
Trump’s Animal-Research Plan Has a Missing Step
No one is tracking the total number of animals used across U.S. labs.
bit.ly
November 14, 2025 at 1:21 PM
ertrunnell.bsky.social
Diabetes affects about 16% of U.S. adults, with millions more unaware they have the condition.

With such a heavy health and economic burden, advancing research that truly reflects human biology has never been more critical.

#WorldDiabetesDay #DiabetesDay #DiabetesAwareness #T1D #T2D #GD

🧪 🧵
Aqua blue, dark blue, and white graphic with a photo of a person’s hands as they check their blood sugar with a glucose monitor. The text reads: “World Diabetes Day. Why human-based diabetes research is the sweet spot for progress. November 14, 2025. After decades of detours through animal models that fail to reflect human diabetes, research policies must modernize to prioritize funding and infrastructure for human-based science.” Also includes the SAO logo and blue plus signs.
November 14, 2025 at 1:58 PM
ertrunnell.bsky.social
My colleague's spread was set to publish in AMA JoE in January, the very next month after the journal shuts down. She worked for a year and a half to organize and curate it. It was such a gut punch but we've thankfully found another home for the articles.
November 14, 2025 at 4:15 AM
ertrunnell.bsky.social
Human pluripotent stem cells allow scientists to model human tissues & organs without using animals, but labeling cell types & states accurately can be tricky.

Wang et al. propose a “stem cell-relevant manifold”—a large reference map combining human tissue & stem cell-derived data.

🧪
Figure 1 from the paper linked in the next post. Caption: "Heterogeneous cell populations across hPSC differentiation Inter- and intra-line variability in hPSC pluripotency and differentiation properties lead to heterogeneous cell states as cells progress through differentiation at variable rates. Failure of some cells to reach the differentiation target population may yield immature by-products or in vitro-specific cell types. In almost all cases, final cell types fail to replicate the diversity, complexity, and maturity found in in vivo tissues."
November 13, 2025 at 8:10 PM
ertrunnell.bsky.social
Breakthrough from the #MusahLab at @dukeubme.bsky.social!

Using human stem cell–based models & glomerulus-on-a-chip technology, researchers revealed how loss-of-function SMAD2 variants cause defective kidney tissue patterning & glomerular dysfunction.

bioengineer.org/studying-sma...

#nephsky 🧪
Studying SMAD2 Mutations Reveals Podocytogenesis Changes
A groundbreaking study released in Nature Biomedical Engineering has unveiled a critical connection between congenital heart disease and kidney function, specifically highlighting the role of genetic
bioengineer.org
November 13, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Reposted by Emily R. Trunnell, Ph.D.
thecolaab.bsky.social
Key actions include:

⚖️ Editorial policies that incentivize the use of nonanimal methods without requiring the inclusion of additional animal experiments

🧑‍🏫 Reviewer guidance for fair evaluation of nonanimal methods

📊 Metrics to track animal vs. nonanimal studies

4/6
November 13, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by Emily R. Trunnell, Ph.D.
thecolaab.bsky.social
The UK Home Office's new strategy, "Replacing animals in science: A strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods," is an important step toward embracing nonanimal methods.

We took a look at how it will help mitigate #AnimalMethodsBias. 🧵

#scipub #scipol 🧪
A graphic with a photo of Big Ben on the left and the following text: "Animal methods bias update. UK Home Office will take measures to reduce animal methods bias in publishing. New strategy promises to: "Strengthen the commitment of journal editors to publishing research using alternative methods."" The COLAAB logo is in the bottom right corner.
November 13, 2025 at 2:30 PM
ertrunnell.bsky.social
CC: @niaidnews.bsky.social, @darpa.mil, @accpchest.bsky.social, @atscommunity.bsky.social, @resphealth.bsky.social, @carb-x.bsky.social, @lenagroup4resp.bsky.social

#scipol #sciencepolicy #healthpolicy
ertrunnell.bsky.social Emily R. Trunnell, Ph.D. @ertrunnell.bsky.social · 13d
This #WorldPneumoniaDay, let's talk pneumonia research modernization. 💡

Despite widespread use, animals cannot replicate the severity or complexity of pneumonia in humans.

To make real progress, we must support human-relevant, non-animal preclinical models.

#IDsky #microbiology 🧪 🧵
November 12, 2025 at 8:19 PM