New Webinar Series Highlights Benefits of Animal-Free Antibodies for COVID-19, Other Non-Animal Research

Experts From Industry, Government, and Academia to Shed Light on Crucial Role of Human Antibodies in Fighting Infection

For Immediate Release:
July 16, 2020

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

As scientists around the world race to create COVID-19 therapeutics, the PETA International Science Consortium Ltd.—an organization dedicated to promoting human-relevant, non-animal testing strategies—has co-launched a free, publicly available six-part webinar series focusing on the applications and benefits of animal-free recombinant antibodies. Antibodies are molecules produced by an organism’s immune system in order to fight viruses, bacteria, or other foreign particles in the body.

The first presentation will air on July 23 and feature experts from the Technische Universität Braunschweig in Germany and the Toronto Recombinant Antibody Centre in Canada, who will share their work and successes in using animal-free antibodies to develop therapeutic treatments, including for the novel coronavirus. Other topics that will be addressed in the series include the scientific and economic benefits of animal-free antibodies, their applications, and their accessibility for academic research and testing. Find out more about the series and register for the first webinar here.

The series is co-organized by the Science Consortium, the National Toxicology Program Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods, and the European Union Reference Laboratory for alternatives to animal testing.

“This webinar series will show viewers why animal-free antibodies are the future of antibody drug development and research,” says Science Consortium President Dr. Amy Clippinger. “Especially during a pandemic, the value of animal-free recombinant antibodies that are more human-relevant and faster to produce has never been clearer.”

Non-animal antibodies overcome numerous scientific issues associated with antibodies derived from animals, which are among the main drivers of the reproducibility crisis in research.

For more information about the webinar series and a full list of the scheduled presentations, please click here.