Funded by the Swiss National Research Programm 79 (NRP79) "Advancing 3R -Animals, Research and Society", our project aims to scientifically prove and promote the Micropipette-guided Drug Administration (MDA) as a safe 3R refining method for oral drug administration in rodents.
Discover the support for MDA from our research community โ hear their thoughts:
MDA has become an essential part of my research work. The animalsreadily engage, are easy to handle, and show no signs of stress, which makes ita pleasure to use as a researcher. Especially for repeated drug administration,MDA is precise, fast, and stress-free, making it beneficial for both theanimals and the researcher.
"Using the MDA approach, we can completely replace oral gavage in the mouse oral glucose tolerance test (oGTT). The oGTT is a commonly used metabolic test in human medicine and preclinical animal research, which assesses how well blood glucose control systems are working in the body and isused to help diagnose diabetes. For our purposes we have adapted the MDA approach using flavoured glucose solution instead of sweetened condensed milk and found that the addition of the flavouring was essential to promote habituation to voluntary glucose drinking. The MDA is much less stressful for both the animals and the investigators. As voluntarily drinking via MDA incorporates glucose sensing by the mouth it is much more similar to the human clinical assay making the approach more translationally relevant. It is our hope that our new approach will become the standard oGTT method for the field and completely replace oral gavage. You can read more about our work in our open access pre-print!"
"I believe MDA is a great alternative to oral gavage in many fields. In the field of vaccines, it is a technique that improves welfare and better mimics future use in other animals or humans, making it excellent for improved translatability and optimization of animal use."
June 9, 2026
๐ฃ๐ฅ๐๐๐๐๐ก๐๐๐๐ ๐ฅ๐๐ง๐๐๐ก๐๐๐ก๐ ๐ช๐ฒ๐ฏ๐ถ๐ป๐ฎ๐ฟ ๐ Date: ๐๐๐ป๐ฒ ๐ต, ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฒ at 4pm (CET) ๐ค Speaker: Dr. Paulin Jirkof (Universitรคt Zรผrich | University of Zurich) ๐ Topic: ๐ ๐ก๐ฒ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ณ๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ด๐ ๐๐ผ ๐ข๐ฟ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ฎ๐๐ฎ๐ด๐ฒ: ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐ ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ถ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐๐๐ฒ-๐๐๐ถ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐๐ฟ๐๐ด ๐๐ฑ๐บ๐ถ๐ป๐ถ๐๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป (๐ ๐๐) ๐ ๐ฒ๐๐ต๐ผ๐ฑ
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If you've tried implementing Micropipette-guided Drug Administration (MDA), you know the hurdle: the lack of clear information on how to administer different molecules - which ones work, under what experimental conditions, and how to optimize the parameters. Whether you're already using MDA or just considering it, your experience directly enriches a resource the whole community can draw on. Thanks for your support!
April 15, 2026
Come and visit our booth at the NRP79 fair in Fribourg! On 15 April 2026, NFP 79 will host a 3R Fair to bring together researchers and stakeholders from public administration, industry, academia, NGOs, politics and public to share insights.
June 24, 2025
We are incredibly proud of our PhD Student Olga Krzyzaniak who won this year's 3Rs Day Poster Prize with her poster on "Behavioral and Pharmacokinetic Validation of MDA in Mice".
June 24, 2025
Join us at the 3Rs Day taking place in Zurich this year. One of our PhD Student will present her poster on MDA in Neuroscience.
June 2, 2025
Rodent MDA showed presence at the FELASA 2025 by presenting MDA research and discussing its animal welfare benefits
Just hot off the press - our rodent MDA pocket guides have arrived and are ready to head your way: Be it for your backpack pocket or your lab wall, our pocket guide is made to fit into your busy work-life. Spread some of them among your colleagues, hang them up on your office door or lab wall, and help increase the awareness of this 3Rs refinement method. Fancy some for your lab and team? Just shoot us a message!
March 13, 2025
In collaboration with the French 3R Center (FC3R), our team member Corina Berset, Animal Welfare Officer at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, will be talking about MDA in the webinar on "Raffiner lโadministration de substances chez les rongeurs".
January 13, 2025
Weโve launched our YouTube channel: @RodentMDA! ๐ฅDedicated to spread the word on this Refinement method, this channel is here for you to learn about everything MDA related. Our first intro video is live โ check it out!
In collaboration with the French 3R Centre FC3R, we translated our SOP to French. Download the French version now for free!
October 18, 2024
Don't miss the talk by Dr. Paulin Jirkof on Rodent MDA!
September 10, 2024
Refining Rodent Oral Administration Protocols: Exploring Advantages, Limitations, and Recent Developmentsโ
June 18, 2024
Informal Knowledge Transfer with BBQ and cold drinks
June 13, 2024
Our PhD Candidate Frida Nilsson won the Poster Prize at the 3RCC 3Rs Day 2024 in Lausanne
Team Rodent MDA
University of Zurich
rodentmda@uzh.ch
