Second Advanced Training School on the use of home cage technologies to monitor rodents
The second Advanced Training School took place in June 2024 in Berlin at the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR). Out of 60 applicants, 22 young scientists from 13 European countries were invited to learn more about the use of home cage based technologies to monitor rodents in research. The students’ participation was fully funded by COST.
The various presentations focused on ways to improve the standardisation and reproducibility of behavioural testing. In addition to commercially available home cage based set-ups, self-developed set-ups were presented and examples of their use were given. The importance of home cage testing for animal welfare was also discussed.
The options for building self-made systems or replicating existing ones are becoming increasingly diverse. Therefore, a workshop was held with a very simple example of how to build a simple prototype to measure activity in the home cage. Participants were guided through the building instructions step by step, so that by the end everyone had their own small device. The workshop was designed to give participants a first experience of building their own devices and to overcome any fears they might have.
Interacting and networking with each other and the experts was an important part of the Training School. Many opportunities were provided for this, including breaks, lunches and the various evening events.
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Dear colleagues,
Welcome to the first 2024 TEATIME COST Action newsletter for improving biomedical research by automated behaviour monitoring in the animal home-cage. In this edition we invite you to apply for our Grant Funding, and an update on where to find TEATIME presentations this quarter.
There is still time to apply:
Are you planning to present your work at a scientific conference in a poster or talk? Need funding for your travel, registration, and accommodation costs?
TEATIME can provide a grant for this if you are under 40 years old and affiliated to a legal entity in a COST Inclusiveness Target Country for the Conference fund.
Do you want to travel to another laboratory? Learning skills related to HCM?
Our grants cover travel, accommodation, and limited lab expenses to cover these visits: Short-Term Scientific Missions
We invite you to read some of our new resources including a Manual developed from the 1st TEATIME Advanced Training Workshop). Our website is updated regularly with new information.
TEATIME are hosting an eventing event on TheBehaviourForum.org at the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) Forum in Vienna. Click below for more information on this and other events.
Look out for the new videos, including. Smart-Kage: the home cage monitoring system for fully automated AI-based long-term continuous phenotyping of mouse cognition and behaviour
We were delighted to be offered the opportunity to reflect upon women representation of our COST Action and zoom in on the gender statistics of the grants we have awarded.
We have had a great response to our call for applications to join our second advanced training course. We will inform all successful applicants by 4th April. A report from the Training School will be published later this year.
We are pleased to share a paper which includes contributions from COST Action CA20135 (TEATIME) members. The paper discusses the repurposing of nonclinical in vivo data using a minimal metadata set (MNMS).
We hope you have found this newsletter interesting and informative. We would be very happy to hear from any of you with feedback and comments. Please also share this newsletter with your colleagues and if you have been forwarded this email and don’t want to miss future newsletters, then please subscribe. All new webinars will be announced on the website and via X 2-3 weeks before the event so please watch the space!
On behalf of all members of the TEATIME Action,
Vootele Voikar – TEATIME Chair
Sara Wells – Grant Holder, TEATIME Vice-chair
Sabine Hölter-Koch – Science Communication Coordinator
This newsletter is based upon work from COST Action TEATIME, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). COST is a funding agency for research and innovation networks. Our Actions help connect research initiatives across Europe and enable scientists to grow their ideas by sharing them with their peers. This boosts their research, career, and innovation.
In celebration of International Women’s Day 2024, we are pleased to share with you insights of some of the amazing female researchers in our Action
Every year International Women’s Day is an excellent opportunity to hold on for a moment and to reflect on the specific contributions of women to our societies and our well-being, and to potentially look for role models. This year, we @COST-TEATIME asked the marvellous female scientists in the leadership of our Action what drove them to pursue a career in science, what motivates them and what they gained so far from the participation in the leadership of a COST Action. We are very happy about the responses we got and think they pretty much reflect the science-driven and collaborative spirit we perceive within our Action. Take a look at their statements and see for yourself!
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Dear colleagues,
Welcome to the TEATIME COST Action newsletter for improving biomedical research by automated behaviour monitoring in the animal home-cage. In this edition we are pleased to share our year end review, as well as reports from our Hackathon and Machine Learning Workshops and the systematic review of the development and application of HCM.
Call for 2024 Grant Applications
Our call for grants for 2024 is now open! Please visit the Grants page of the TEATIME website for more information and details on how to apply.
Will be held in Berlin, Germany from 4th to 7th June 2024. Intended for Masters, PhD, and post-doctoral students, with at least 2 years’ experience in rodent behavioural research. Applications open 15 Jan 2024.
In October 2023 we held our first Hackathon, which brought researchers from across Europe together to work collaboratively to produce machine learning models for behaviour classification in the home cage. The models and source code will be shared on TEATIME’s GitHub.
In September 2023, in Jurmala, Latvia, we brought together 26 experts from 15 countries to discuss the proliferation of tools and machine learning applications allowing users to track animal movement and analyse behaviour.
This year we have been delighted to offer grants to researchers to complete 8 Short Term Scientific Missions (STSM) in a lab in a different country to their own, 3 ITC Conference Grants and 4 Dissemination Grants to attend and present at academic conferences. Reports can be found on our grant page.
Look out for the new videos, including Quantifying behaviour using deep learning. Talmo Pereira. Updates from participants at our Advanced Training School. Is that time for a renaissance of ethologically based measure of anxiety-like behaviors in rodents?
Silvia Mandillo gave an interesting presentation where she discussed the interaction of TEATIME with the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC).
We hope you have found this newsletter interesting and informative. We would be very happy to hear from any of you with feedback and comments. Please also share this newsletter with your colleagues and if you have been forwarded this email and don’t want to miss future newsletters, then please subscribe. All new webinars will be announced on the website and via X 2-3 weeks before the event so please watch the space!
On behalf of all members of the TEATIME Action,
Vootele Voikar – TEATIME Chair
Sara Wells – Grant Holder, TEATIME Vice-chair
Sabine Hölter-Koch – Science Communication Coordinator
This newsletter is based upon work from COST Action TEATIME, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). COST is a funding agency for research and innovation networks. Our Actions help connect research initiatives across Europe and enable scientists to grow their ideas by sharing them with their peers. This boosts their research, career, and innovation.
This autumn we have unveiled a comprehensive paper delving into the transformative potential of home-cage monitoring technology (HCM) in the realm of biomedical animal research. Traditionally, laboratory rodents undergo individual examinations in external test apparatuses at specific time points, a practice that may overlook crucial data influenced by various factors. To address these limitations, the research community has increasingly turned to longitudinally monitoring mice and rats within their home cages. The recently published systematic review, drawing insights from 521 publications sourced from PubMed and Web of Science, sheds light on the evolution of HCM and its current state-of-the-art applications.
Over the covered period, numerous studies have shown a remarkable enhancement in techniques for HCM of mice and rats. The ongoing development signifies a promising trajectory for the field, indicating that continuous, longitudinal, and non-invasive monitoring of various parameters in group-housed small rodents within their home cages is within reach. By monitoring animals in their home cages over extended periods, we can capture a more accurate representation of their natural behavior and physiological responses. This not only enhances the reliability of our findings but also opens up new possibilities for studying a broader array of parameters in a group setting. The implications of this research extend beyond mere technological progress. The ability to monitor animals continuously within their familiar environment holds the potential to revolutionize experimental designs, offering a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of various interventions and stimuli. As the field of HCM continues to evolve, researchers anticipate further refinements and validations of monitoring systems. These improvements will inevitably broaden the applications of HCM, allowing for a nuanced understanding of the intricacies of animal behavior and physiology over time.
In conclusion, the paper signifies a pivotal moment in biomedical research, highlighting the strides made in home-cage monitoring technology and hinting at a future where the continuous observation of small rodents within their home cages becomes standard practice in laboratories worldwide.
I was privileged to present the groundbreaking TEATIME Action at the 5th Congress of the Society for Laboratory Animals of Slovenia and the 3rd joint SLAS – CroLASA meeting on June 15, 2023, in Ljubljana, Slovenia. My lecture focused on the transformative potential of automated behavior monitoring in the home cages of laboratory animals, particularly mice and rats, aiming to elevate the standards of biomedical research.
TEATIME Action, launched in 2021 and spanning 34 European countries, unites experts in mouse behavior, data science, and animal welfare. Focused on home cage monitoring (HCM) technologies, it aims to enhance the reliability of measures in laboratory rodents, setting standards for ethical preclinical research. TEATIME fosters collaboration through surveys and a systematic review, providing a catalog of HCM systems and offering training programs. This initiative not only refines experimental conditions and reduces animal use but also builds a diverse, interconnected network for a more ethical and efficient future in biomedical research. The abstract of the lecture can be found in the Book of Abstracts (1 (slas.si)).
As the topic unfolded, I was delighted to witness the audience’s curiosity ignite. The flood of questions that followed indicated a genuine interest in the subject. What thrilled me even more was the realization that the information shared was breaking new ground for many researchers. Some attendees were encountering the fascinating realm of Home Cage Monitoring (HCM) systems for the first time. The allure of our shared mission—improving research using laboratory animals—resonated with fellow researchers. Many expressed not only their desire to learn more but also their interest in joining our Action. It’s the kind of collaborative spirit that propels our collective pursuit of knowledge forward. The exchange of ideas and the prospect of forging new connections left me inspired and excited about the collective journey ahead.
dr. Maša Čater Biotechnical faculty University of Ljubljana Slovenia
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COST-TEATIME Newsletter, July 2023
Dear colleagues,
Welcome to the TEATIME COST Action newsletter for improving biomedical research by automated behaviour monitoring in the animal home-cage. In this edition we are pleased to announce the launch of the new Home Cage Monitoring Forum. We apologise and have corrected the link to Silvia Mandillo’s Grant Report from the previous edition; please use the link in this edition to read her report on the 8th Mediterranean Neuroscience Society (MNS).
Our Behaviour Forum has been launched
We are pleased to inform you all that our Forum is now available for you to join the discussion, share ideas, and get support. Please use the QR code to find the Forum.
TEATIME has awarded eight grants to individuals this year to undertake Short-term Scientific Missions (STSM) to visit labs in countries other than their own. Recent reports are included here.
ITC Grant Report
Mailis Carrilho presenting her research at the 17th Rodens et Spatim – International Conference on Rodent Biology in Spain.
STSM Grant Reports
Alice Melloni visited Prof Stuart Peirson’s laboratory in Oxford and discussed the setups dedicated to behavioural testing.
Lionie Pakulat visited Nuno Franco’s laboratory at the University of Porto and discussed the automated cages for mice.
TEATIME Dissemination Grant Reports
Aleksandra Bartelik with a TEATIME presentation at Central-East European Laboratory Animal Science Congress, Prague.
Silvia Mandillo was awarded our first TEATIME Dissemination grant which enabled her to attend the 8th Mediterranean Neuroscience Society (MNS) Conference Dubrovnik, Croatia. We are delighted to share her report in this newsletter.
A critical review of conventional models of depression and alternative approaches to studying emotional behaviour in non-human species. Emma Robinson. Radial maze without food deprivation: a new, automated, stress-free and voluntary test for assessment of spatial memory in mice. Dr Jie Mei.
In July 2023 we held our second workshop to offer education, advice, networking, and training in Home Cage Monitoring to academic researchers.We were pleased to welcome 24 students from across 13 different European countries. A full report will be published in our Autumn newsletter.
We hope you have found this newsletter interesting and informative. We would be very happy to hear from any of you with feedback and comments. Please also share this newsletter with your colleagues and if you have been forwarded this email and don’t want to miss future newsletters, then please subscribe. All new webinars will be announced on the website and via Twitter 2-3 weeks before the event so please watch the space!
On behalf of all members of the TEATIME Action,
Vootele Voikar – TEATIME Chair
Sara Wells – Grant Holder, TEATIME Vice-chair
Sabine Hölter-Koch – Science Communication Coordinator
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COST TEATIME Newsletter – May 2023
Dear colleagues,
Welcome to the TEATIME COST Action newsletter for improving biomedical research by automated behaviour monitoring in the animal home-cage. In this edition weare pleased to announce our catalogueof devices and software, that fall under our definition of HCM, is now online.
Closing Date for Grants Extended to 30th of June
If you need help with your application, please let us know
A few of our TEATIME members are editors of a new special edition called:Home Cage-based Phenotyping in Rodents: Innovation, Standardization, Reproducibility and Translational Improvement – Volume II
2022 Dissemination Grant Report Silvia Mandillo was awarded our first TEATIME Dissemination grant which enabled her to attend the 8th Mediterranean Neuroscience Society (MNS) Conference Dubrovnik, Croatia.We are delighted to share her report in this newsletter.
AMBER: automated maternal behavior during early life in rodents.Dr. Hannah Lapp(University of Texas at Austin)
Introducing a novel, syndrome-based approach for depression modelling in translational neuropsychiatry: opportunities and challenges. Dr. Iven-Alex von Mücke-Heim (Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany)
Revolutionizing translational psychiatry through rodent neuroethology. Dr. Yair Shemesh (Department of Brain Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel).
Radial maze without food deprivation: a new, automated, stress-free and voluntary test for assessment of spatial memory in mice.Dr. Jie Mei (International Research Center for Neurointelligence (IRCN), University of Tokyo, Japan) rael).
TEATIME Catalogue We have compiled a list of devices and software that falls under our definition of HCM. The list can be filtered and searched. Our aim is to create a useful and accurate resource. If you have more content to add, pleaseemail us.
We will continue to highlight events and papers in this newsletter. However, we are pleased to announce we now have a webpage dedicated to TEATIME publications and conferences, as well as many other resources.
was co-authored by TEATIME colleagues published online in iScience
Systematic Review of Home Cage Monitoring in Rodents
Members of the TEATIME consortium have worked together with other researchers to complete and publish a Systematic Review to shed light on the development of home cage monitoring (HCM) and the current state of the art. The review was carried out on 521 publications retrieved through PubMed and Web of Science.
We hope you have found this newsletter interesting and informative. We would be very happy to hear from any of you with feedback and comments. Please also share this newsletter with your colleagues and if you have been forwarded this email and don’t want to miss future newsletters, then pleasesubscribe. All new webinars will be announced on the website and via Twitter 2-3 weeks before the event so please watch the space!
On behalf of all members of the TEATIME Action,
Vootele Voikar – TEATIME Chair
Sara Wells – Grant Holder, TEATIME Vice-chair
Sabine Hölter-Koch – Science Communication Coordinator
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COST-TEATIME Newsletter, January 2023
Dear colleagues,
Welcome to the TEATIME COST Action newsletter for improving biomedical research by automated behaviour monitoring in the animal home-cage. In this edition we give an overview of this Action, talk about some of our accomplishments in 2022 and look forward to our plans for 2023.
Do you want to visit a laboratory in another country to work with home-cage monitoring for a week or more? TEATIME offers grants of up to €4,000 for Short Term Scientific Missions (STSMs)
In 2022 COST Action members gave presentations at various International meetings including the Swiss Lab Animal Science Association meeting in Lausanne. These meetings are always a good opportunity for networking and promoting TEATIME.
Open Call for ITC Conference Grants
TEATIME is offering 4 ITC (Inclusiveness Target Country) Conference Grants (of up to €2,000 each) for young researchers and innovators to attend a high-level conference and present their work as a poster or oral presentation.
We have hosted two recent webinars; Dr. A. Kravitz “Open source approaches for studying home cage behaviour” & Dr. C. Ferland-Beckham “Modelling neuropsychiatric disorders in the laboratory: Why sex matters?”
These and more are available on demand via our YouTube channel.
We currently have three webinars coming up:
24.1.23 – 3 pm CET – WG2 webinar: Balint Kiraly, Balazs Hangya (Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hungary): Efficient, stress-free learning of mice in a fully automated training system. https://cost-eu.zoom.us/j/85971753727
28.2.23 – 3 pm CET – TEATIME webinar: Hannah Lapp (Univ Austin Texas, USA): AMBER: automated maternal behavior during early life in rodents (Summary: Using open-source deep learning tools and computational behavioral analysis to measure maternal behavior in the home cage.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBS2_9it__I
23.3.23 – 3 pm CET – TEATIME webinar: Iven Mücke-Heim (MPI Psychiatry, Germany): presentation of their recent review “Introducing a depression-like syndrome for translational neuropsychiatry: a plea for taxonomical validity and improved comparability between humans and mice” https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-022-01762-w
FENS Networking event
We held a special workshop to share with international behaviourists and other researchers, and inform about our future workshops and training events, that will take place in the next 3 years.
Report on our Working Group meeting in Prague
October 2022 saw our first all action groups meeting in Prague. It was a good occasion for us to talk face to face and give updates on how the workstreams are progressing.
Report on Working Groups’ activities
There are five Working groups aligned to TEATIME, each group meets regularly throughout the year and focuses on its workstream. A brief overview for each Action stream can be found via the link below.
The Olog depicted above is a representation of the definition of Home Cage Monitoring. “A system that collects information on an animal which lives inside an enclosure that provides food, water, social contacts, and environmental enrichment”.
We hope you have found this newsletter interesting and informative. We would be very happy to hear from any of you with feedback and comments. Please also share this newsletter with your colleagues and if you have been forwarded this email and don’t want to miss future newsletters, then please subscribe. All new webinars will be announced on the website and via Twitter 2-3 weeks before the event so please watch the space!
On behalf of all members of the TEATIME Action,
Vootele Voikar – TEATIME Chair
Sara Wells – Grant Holder, TEATIME Vice-chair
Sabine Hölter-Koch – Science Communication Coordinator
