New research project funded by The Humane Research Trust

The Allan lab has been awarded funding from The Humane Research Trust to develop an animal-free epithelial model that can be used to investigate the process of Streptococcus pneumoniae infection, replacing commonly used animal-based epithelial models and testing on mice. This model will advance our understanding of pneumococcal infection and assess future therapeutics to tackle the significant burden of pneumococcal disease.

The Importance of Pneumococcal Research

• Despite the introduction of vaccines, Streptococcus pneumoniae remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, responsible for ~300,000 deaths of children under 5 years of age every year and ~197 million episodes of pneumococcal pneumonia in 2016.

• Antiobiotic resistance has become a major global concern with Streptococcus pneumoniae being included in the World Health Organisation (WHO) priority pathogens list for R&D of new antibiotics (2024).

The Importance of Developing Animal-Free Models

The Allan lab has never performed animal research and is always striving to identify viable alternatives that can help further our understanding of biofilm infections.

Currently, the primary route for investigating pneumococcal infection and assessing

the effectiveness of new treatments and vaccines is through live animal testing. Large

numbers of mice, and to a lesser extent rats and rabbits, are commonly used for

studying pneumococcal pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis. Chinchillas, gerbils, guinea

pigs and mice are also used for studying otitis media (ear infection).

Whilst cell culture approaches have been used to investigate pneumococcal infection they are not fully biologically representative and utilise a variety of products that are animal-derived. By developing a new long-term epithelial infection model we will be addressing an unmet need in pneumococcal research whilst also creating a fully animal-free model that can be employed in the investigation of various respiratory infections, reducing aminal use.

This 3-year project is being carried out in collaboration with Dr David Cleary (University of Birmingham) and Prof Julie Morrissey (University of Leicester). The research will be carried out by Divine Derefaka, a PhD student who will be funded through the project.