New insights into the immune system: How new technologies combine research and animal welfare
Anja Hauser at the Charité 3R Focus Workshop
Prof. Dr. Anja Hauser from the German Rheumatism Research Center Berlin, a Leibniz Institute, and Charité Universitätsmedizin – Berlin gave an insight into her research work on multiplex fluorescence microscopy (MELC) during the Charité 3R Focus Workshop “Advanced light microscopy: human 3D models in focus” on June 20, 2025. She showed how this technology not only improves our understanding of diseases, but also helps to reduce numbers in animal testing.
With spatial multi-omics technologies, disease processes in patient tissue can be analyzed in more detail than ever before. This data allows researchers to replace certain animal experiments because many insights can be gained directly from human tissue. At the same time, new imaging techniques such as multiplex histology allow a large number of biological markers to be examined simultaneously in a small number of tissue samples from mice – meaning that fewer animals are used in research.
Artificial intelligence helps to comprehensively evaluate the complex image data and recognize patterns that would otherwise remain undetected. This provides insights that benefit both patients and animal welfare.
Charité 3 R Focus Workshop “Advanced light microscopy: human 3D models in focus”
The workshop brought together scientists investigating human 3D organ models with various experts in 3D model/organoid imaging to present the state of the art, successful workflows, common pitfalls and discuss individual approaches. Thanks to the latest methods of so-called spatial biology, researchers can understand exactly how the immune system is organized in healthy and diseased tissue.
