We won’t always have to use animals for medical research. Here’s what we can do instead

Sun, 1 Oct 2023 19:55:21 +1100

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://theconversation.com/we-wont-always-have-to-use-animals-for-medical-research-heres-what-we-can-do-instead-212182>

"Animals have been used for medical research for thousands of years, dating
back to ancient Greece where the first dissections were performed.

These days, one of the main uses of animals is to ensure the safety of medical
products before they’re trialled in humans.

But in addition to the important ethical reasons for minimising animal use, the
reality is sometimes animals just aren’t that good at predicting human
responses. No animal model, for example, has captured all the human
characteristics of complex illnesses like Alzheimer’s disease or chronic
inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (a neuromuscular disease). This makes
is hard to develop effective treatments and cures.

Thankfully, researchers are making progress in developing a collection of
alternative approaches, called “non-animal models”. A new report from our team
at CSIRO Futures examines the potential of non-animal models and the actions
Australia will need to take to pursue their use."

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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