Helpathon #10: Animal-free innovation education

The next Helpathon is a very special Helpathon, as we conclude a series of 10 Helpathons. We warmly invite you to participate in Helpathon#10 on animal-free innovation education from December 13-14 and celebrate our 10th edition with a networking lunch and celebration webinar.

We believe Helpathons are peer to peer potentially transformative educational venues. Did you know that more than 250 people participated in Helpathons since 2017. Innovative animal-free biomedical research methods are developing rapidly since we started creating these open spaces to discover animal free research possibilities. Education is essential for scaling up the uptake of these new ways.

Can you help the team of Daniela Salvatori, chair of Transition Programme animal-free Innovations Utrecht, and Janneke Hogervorst, PETA UK, progress their international education hub for animal-free innovation? In Helpathon #3 Daniela asked for help to design her course on animal free methods. With this experience she is now wanting to take this education a big step further. Have you been there from the very beginning? Have you ever participated in a Helpathon, are you interested and would you like to help Daniela and Janneke, or do you simply support animal-free research?

Register now for this special 10th edition. You can either join in person or online.

• Helpathon #10 – Core Team (in-person) Wednesday 13 December, 14h30 - 18h00 until Thursday 14 December, 09h00 - 15h00 (incl. networking lunch and celebration webinar) Venue: O|2 Building VU, Amsterdam.
• Helpathon #10 – Hybrid Team (online) Wednesday 13 December, 15h00 - 18h00 until Thursday 14th December, 13h30 - 15h00 (incl. celebration webinar)
• 10th edition celebration with networking lunch and webinar (in-person) Thursday 14 December, 12h00 - 15h00 Venue: O|2 Building VU, Amsterdam.
• 10th edition celebration webinar (online) Thursday 14 December 13h30 - 15h00

A BIG THANK YOU to the thirty helpers who participated in the 9th Helpathon!

Before you read any further, spread the word: it is possible to use animal free antibodies and Animal Free Research UK is bringing a database online very soon!

It was fascinating to discover how, for millions of years, antibodies have developed. How our bodies create antibodies sticking to particular molecules in particular cells, transforming themselves by muting their genetic material to attune and stick even more. The more an antibody sticks the better our body can deal with particular unwanted cells. Ingeniously this natural ability is used to trace and visualize cells in invitro biomedical research. Even more we can characterize existing antibodies and combine them to create new ones that stick even better.

Dr. Juan Garcia-Vallejo called for this Helpathon. He is an experienced immunologist and director of the cutting edge O2 Flow facility for cytometry and cell sorting at the Amsterdam VU University Medical Center. This Helpathon team really worked hard towards practical feasible ideas to help Juan explore how he and any other university can transition their facilities towards animal-free antibodies.

As communicating existing possibilities is key, they imagined a university campus Green Team Ambassadors picking up the responsibility of sharing what animal free options are available now. This intrinsically motivated ambassador could also be running a Green Fridge full of samples from suppliers to be tried out now by researchers.

The team also produced the beginning of a business plan for core facilities such as Juan’s to develop their own new animal free antibodies meeting the specific needs of their own researchers. It is perfectly feasible and a businesswise worthwhile investment.

Kind regards,

The Helpathon Hotel Team
Pepik Henneman, Sue Gibbs, Debby Weijers, Jan de Dood, Dries Gysels and Monique de Haan ________________________________________