RE-Place: a tool to increase the visibility of your work on organoids

Background – Organoids represent promising tools for disease modelling and drug development as they recapitulate human physiology and interactions between different cell types. Organoids can thus play a pivotal role in the (partial) replacement of laboratory animals. Knowledge on these animal-free ‘New Approach Methodologies’ (NAMs) is rapidly evolving, making it challenging to find relevant information about their current use.

Aims – In Belgium, the RE-Place project aims to tackle this challenge by gathering all existing expertise on the use of NAMs, including organoids, in one central database available via www.re-place.be.

Methods – The RE-Place open-access database provides an up-to-date inventory of the existing knowledge on NAMs in Belgium and links this information with the names of experts and institutes where the methods have been developed and/or are currently applied.

Results – At present, 177 experts from 32 Belgian organizations submitted over 270 methods, of which approximately 40 are three-dimensional in vitro models. This amount is only a mere fraction of the existing expertise on organoids in Belgium. In order to reach the full potential of this technology, the RE-Place team encourages researchers to share their knowledge with different stakeholders via the RE-Place database. The RE-Place team also support scientists in increasing the visibility of their work by offering them the possibility to present it during scientific events, and by promoting it via different channels (social media, mailing, etc).

Conclusions – The exchange of valuable information and know-how is thus greatly facilitated, reaching a broader audience in the scientific community. As such, RE-Place stimulates the development and use of organoids with the ultimate goal of accelerating their adoption on a broader scale, while also contributing to the (partial) replacement of animal testing in the long term.