# Congratulations to Manon Murdeu on receiving the Swiss 3Rs Young Investigator Award

**Source**: https://bsse.ethz.ch/news-and-events/d-bsse-news/2025/08/congrats-to-2024-swiss-3rs-young-investigator-award-to-manon-murdeu.html
**Parent**: https://bsse.ethz.ch/news-and-events/d-bsse-news.html?AUTHOR=Q2Fyb2xpbiBBcm5kdCBGb3BwYQ&path=L2NvbnRlbnQvc3BlY2lhbGludGVyZXN0L2Jzc2UvZGVwYXJ0bWVudC9lbi9uZXdzLWFuZC1ldmVudHMvamNyOmNvbnRlbnQvcGFyL25ld3NmZWVkXzQzMTg

The Swiss 3R Competence Center (3RCC) gives the 2024 Swiss 3Rs Young Investigator Award to Manon Murdeau from the Bio Engineering Lab for her innovative research in reproductive toxicology, exemplifying the 3Rs principle by reducing animal use while enhancing the quality and ethical standards of biomedical science.

Manon, a doctoral student of both the Empa and the Bio Engineering lab at D-BSSE, receives the award for her scientific breakthrough in pregnancy safety testing, namely her work on developing a ”Human-based placenta-embryo chip for developmental toxicity assessment of drugs, chemicals and nanoparticles."

The developed chip system does not rely on the use of animals, but instead makes use of human cell material, which is of high importance, as the human placenta is very different from that of other species. Therefore, the awarded in vitro model system represents a significant advancement in replicating human physiological processes and offering an alternative to animal models. The model system contributes to filling a significant gap in the evaluation of toxicikinetics and toxicodynamics during pregnancy.

Manon Murdeu works in the Particles at Barriers laboratory at Empa in St. Gallen, headed by Dr. Tina Bürki Thurnherr, and is a doctoral student of D-BSSE co-tutored by Julia Boos and colleagues at the Bio Engineering Lab, where she does technological part of her research, while the biological and placenta work is done in St. Gallen.

Manon Murdeu, a joint doctoral researcher at Empa’s Particles-Biology Interactions Lab and the ETH-Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, Bio Engineering Lab, has received a 3Rs Young Investigator Award for developing a groundbreaking placenta-embryo chip –  an innovative, human-based tool to assess the effects of chemicals, drugs, and nanoparticles during pregnancy without using animals. Her work tackles a major gap in health research: the lack of safety data on how substances affect pregnant women and developing embryos. Currently, over 90% of approved drugs and most environmental chemicals lack reliable data on their safety during pregnancy. Due to ethical and legal restrictions, pregnant women are rarely included in clinical trials. As a result, nearly all testing for developmental toxicity still relies on animal experiments –  particularly in rodents – despite significant biological differences between species. Each standard study can involve hundreds of animals, and globally, tens of thousands are used annually for this purpose. Murdeu’s model offers a compelling alternative. Her chip co-cultures human placenta and embryonic tissue in a simple, pump-free system that mimics the maternal-fetal interface. It allows scientists to study how substances transfer through the placenta and affect early development—providing human-relevant insights that animal models often miss. Importantly, the chip’s user-friendly design makes it accessible to researchers without specialized training in microfluidics. Reviewers praised the project’s scientific rigor and far-reaching potential: “The development affects very high animal numbers around the world.” “It is encouraging to see the model gaining attention from international stakeholders and being positioned for broader regulatory relevance.” “I am particularly impressed by the effort to fill a significant data gap in the evaluation of toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics during pregnancy, an area where data are lacking for the vast majority of approved drugs and environmental chemicals.” Murdeu states: "Receiving this award is both an honor and a motivation to push the boundaries of women's reproductive health research and, hopefully, it will inspire other young scientists to develop and improve new human-based alternatives to animal models." She adds: "With our model we aim to gain early pre-clinical data for drug and nanoparticle hazard assessment, contributing to the protection of pregnant women and developing fetuses while reducing the need for extensive animal testing." With growing interest from research and regulatory communities, Murdeu’s placenta-embryo chip could become a first-tier tool in international safety assessment frameworks. Her work stands to significantly reduce the use of animals in developmental toxicity testing while improving protections for maternal and fetal health.

This text is taken from the [external page 3RCC Media release](https://swiss3rcc.org/media/pages/news/b9fc9a0d5f-1754996709/3r-awards-2024.pdf).

The Swiss 3RCC presents 3R prizes for work conducted in Switzerland each year - the Swiss 3RCC's 3Rs Award and the Young 3Rs Investigator Awards. The Young 3Rs Investigator Awards, worth CHF 2500, are granted to researchers, who have made significant contributions to the 3Rs principle in the early stages of their careers.

Find a [news post](https://bsse.ethz.ch/bel/news/bel-news-archive/2025/06/manon-murdeu-received-2024-swiss-3r-young-investigator-award.html) on the [Bio Engineering Lab led by Andreas Hierlemann](https://bsse.ethz.ch/bel).

Learn about the [external page Swiss 3R Competence Center](https://swiss3rcc.org), link to their [external page media release](https://swiss3rcc.org/media/pages/news/b9fc9a0d5f-1754996709/3r-awards-2024.pdf).

NEWS UPDATE

In September, Manon received two additional awards for ther research work and contribution titled 'Human-based placenta-embryo chip for developmental toxicity assessment of nanoparticles and drugs' at the EUROTOX Congress 2025 in Athens: The *Gerhard Zbinden Early Career Award* for drug-oriented toxicological research and the *'*In vitro and in silico toxicology (In2Tox) speciality section*'* best poster presentation award. Once again: Congratulations, Manon! [Read more](https://bsse.ethz.ch/bel/news/bel-news-archive/2025/09/two-prizes-for-manon-murdeu-at-eurotox-2025-in-athens.html).