LAUSR

Following feedback from LASA members who thought it was the right time, in November this year LASA held its first in-person annual conference since 2019. The key strength of LASA is our members, therefore getting back to meeting in person was very welcome. The meeting in Birmingham, UK was over two days; a revised arrangement to support a smooth and safe transition from the online format. An engaging scientific, trade and social programme was put together through LASA Council, section convenors and generous contributions following an open call to junior researchers. The meeting focused on discussing new scientific developments in laboratory animal sciences, animal welfare and, importantly, how our community can continue to promote further development in the 3Rs. Our keynote speakers delivered masterclass lectures on two key areas of science: Andreas Schaefer (Francis Crick Institute) explained how neurotechnology is helping to unravel the function of sensory circuits in the mouse brain, and Rudolf de Wildt (GlaxoSmithKline), discussed the ‘Past – present – future of antibody discovery’. These talks disseminated how excellence, innovation and multidisciplinary preclinical animal research is currently supporting biomedical discovery and translational research, and additionally how this work is supporting further developments in 3Rs and alternative approaches. It is hugely important for the LASA community to continue engaging with such innovative research alongside the association’s commitment to ensure and promote best animal use, care and welfare. In the Animal Care & Welfare session, there were extremely well-received talks on ‘Home cage monitoring of mouse behaviours’ by Sonia Bains (MRC Harwell, UK), ‘Mouse aggression’ by Tamara Baker (AstraZeneca, UK), ‘Handling and dosing refinements’ by Julia Bartlett (University of Bristol, UK) and ‘Zebrafish embryo genotyping’ by Claire Allen (University of Sheffield, UK). These provided up-todate information on improving animal care and welfare through innovative monitoring and procedural refinements. The LARN (Large Animal Research Network) Section provided insightful discussions on: the challenges to maximise refinement in large animal experiments by Eddie Clutton (University of Edinburgh, UK) and how technological innovations are proving instrumental in better approaches for assessing and promoting the health and welfare of farm and laboratory animals by Helen Gray and Matt Leach (Newcastle University, UK). LASA is strongly committed to continuing its support for innovations across all lab animal species, and therefore it is important that the large animal research community should receive LASA’s support and that the association can continue to promote broad collaboration with other lab animal fields. The second meeting day started with the eternally challenging discussions on experimental design and reproducibility. The Education, Training and Ethics (ETES) Section set up an engaging and highly participative symposium addressing the currently hot topic of sex bias in preclinical research and Natasha Karp (AstraZeneca, UK) explored how to change this, and, importantly, Matt Leach (Newcastle University, UK) looked at how we can all continue to combat the