Symposium "Bringing the World into the Lab"

June 13th, 2025, Serre, Botanical Gardens, Utrecht

We are excited to announce Bringing the World into the Lab, a cross-disciplinary research community meeting exploring innovative approaches to study animals in the lab under more naturalistic and ecologically relevant settings. The program brings together researchers from behavioural neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and immunology, working with different species (rodents, fish, birds). Join us for a lively exchange of ideas on how enriching laboratory environments and embracing complexity can reveal deeper insights.

Program

11:15 Coffee and tea

11:30 Judith Homberg (RadboudUMC) Building a semi-naturalistic environment

11:45 Martien Kas (RUG) Neural circuits mechanisms of social dysfunction; a transdiagnostic and translational approach under semi-natural conditions

12:05 Alexander Kotrschal (WUR) Evolution in real time: the guppy in artificial selection experiments

12:25 Pitch: Suzanne van der Veldt Studying mice in semi-natural environments: Neural

mechanisms of adaptive emotional learning.

12:30 Pitch: Marion Nicolaus Back to the wild: mesocosms as a bridge between lab and field studies

12:35 Lunch

13:30 Bernhard Englitz (RU) Real-time analysis of audiovisual social interactions in rodents using acoustic camera and AI tracking

13:50 Alexander Heimel (NIN) Hidden Markov Models to study naturalistic behaviour

14:05 Saskia Arndt (UU) More Than a Cage: How the environment shapes rodent welfare and research outcomes

14:25 Pitch: Marsilda Qily Real life, lab life: bridging natural complexity with controlled

research

14:30 Pitch: Rixt van der Veen Complex housing, social competence and modelling a demanding society

14:35 Pitch: Lucas Noldus Easy-to-use tools for complex measurement and analysis challenges: harnessing the power of AI

14:40 Break

15:00 Andrea Graham (Princeton) Keynote: Where the Wild Things Are: Naturalizing mouse models for immunology and beyond

15:40 Leo Joosten (RadboudUMC) Exposome and the immune system

16:00 Kees van Oers (WUR) Measuring behaviour in the wild and in the lab

16:20 Pitch: Liesbeth Sterck Housing rhesus macaques in multigenerational or peer

groups: a trade-off between welfare and female reproductive success?

16:25 Pitch: Xia Zhan Breeding dispersal is negatively correlated with natal dispersal and its association with individual aggressiveness varies among years

16:30 Drinks

Photo impressions of the meeting

The morning session inside the Serre of the Botanical Gardens. Judith Homberg is discussing how to build a semi-naturalistic rodent environment.

Alexander Kotrschal is discussing guppy evolution in the lab.

The afternoon session in the semi-naturalistic environment of the Botanical Gardens

Bernhard Englitz is explaining how to track animals by their voices.

Organisation: Judith Homberg (judith.homberg@radboudumc.nl) & Alexander Heimel (heimel@nin.knaw.nl) and steering committee RC Organisms in their Environment

Venue: Serre, Botanische Tuinen, Universiteit Utrecht, Budapestlaan 17, 3584 CD Utrecht