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Mountain chickadees have remarkable memories. A new study explains why

A mountain chickadee stands on a tree. (Credit: Robert Taylor)  

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Lost your keys? Can’t remember where you parked the car? If only you had the memory of a mountain chickadee. 

These half-ounce birds, with brains slightly larger than a pea, stash tens of thousands of food items like seeds in tree bark, under dead leaves and inside pinecones across the mountains. When winter arrives, they can recall the exact locations of their caches, a skill that helps them survive the bitter cold and deep snow. 

In a new study published April 17 in the journal Current Biology, researchers at CU Boulder and the University of Nevada, Reno identify nearly a hundred genes associated with the birds’ spatial memory, or ability to recall the locations of objects. The paper also suggests a potential trade-off may exist between having a solid long-term memory and being able to quickly ditch old memories to form new ones.

The findings could help biologists better understand the evolution of spatial memory in animals, including humans, said Georgy Semenov , the paper’s lead author and a research associate in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. "This study substantially advanced our understanding of the genetics of spatial memory in birds and behavioral genetics more broadly,” he said.

“Chickadees are impressive birds,” said Scott Taylor , the director of CU Boulder’s Mountain Research Station and associate professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. “They can remember tens of thousands of locations where they cached food across an entire winter and a new set of those the next winter. Their spatial memory is much more developed than many other birds that don't have to have this strategy to survive cold winters.”

To evaluate the spatial memory of wild mountain chickadees, Taylor’s collaborators at the University of Nevada, Reno, led by biologist professor, Vladimir Pravosudov, designed a clever test. They hung multiple feeder arrays, each with eight bird feeders with seeds in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. Each feeder has a gate with a radio frequency reader that can detect a tag researchers put on chickadees. The team then programmed each gate to only open to certain birds, so that the chickadees had to remember the location of the feeders that would open to them. 

Top: A mountain chickadee eats seeds from a feeder. (Credit: Nicholas Goda) Bottom: The feeder array used to test chickadees' spatial memory. (Credi: Yvaine Ye)

Pravosudov and his team then counted how many times each chickadee landed on the wrong feeders before they recalled the right one. The theory is that birds with better spatial memory would have a lower error rate. 

Using blood samples, the team at CU Boulder also sequenced the entire genome of 162 tagged chickadees, creating the largest dataset ever collected for evaluating the genetic basis of chickadee cognitive ability. By comparing the birds’ genomes with their performance on the feeder test, the team identified 97 genes associated with chickadees’ spatial learning and memory. Birds with specific genetic variants at these genes made fewer wrong attempts before landing on their designated feeders. 

A large proportion of these variants are associated with neuron formation in the hippocampus, a part of the brain that’s responsible for learning and memory, according to paper co-author Sara Padula , a doctoral student in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Padula conducted a literature review on chickadees' spatial memory for the paper along with Ajay Patel , a doctoral student in the Taylor Lab. 

“Understanding the genetic basis of this trait will allow us to understand how the trait evolves,” Taylor said. 

Taylor notes that the common ancestor of all North American chickadees cached food. But of the seven species of chickadees now found here, two do not. 

“They live in a milder environment where food is generally available year-round. Now that we know the gene regions that underlie spatial memory, we can look at what variation looks like in these species that have lost caching,” he said.  

A trade-off

Chickadees that have exceptional spatial memory can live up to nine years, which is a long time for a small bird, Taylor said. But the study suggests that having good long-term memory may come at a price. 

After running the initial task for a few days, Pravosudov’s team assigned new feeders to the birds. 

To the team’s surprise, chickadees that performed better in the initial test tended to struggle with switching to the new feeder. They seemed to have a harder time abandoning their initial memories and creating new ones.

“In a more variable environment, what our collaborators found suggests that chickadees with good long-term memory may have a disadvantage. For example, if there is an unexpected snowstorm, these birds may keep trying to visit caches that have been buried in the snow, rather than forgetting them and looking for other caches,” Padula said. 

A shifting climate

Facing a rapidly changing climate, birds that can quickly form new memories may survive better.

“Because of climate change, we might expect these selective pressures that have been shaping chickadee’s special memory for thousands of years to shift significantly,” Taylor said. 

This winter, Taylor and his team set up the same type of feeder array at the university’s Mountain Research Station west of Boulder. 

For the last one million years, the mountain chickadees in the Rocky Mountains have evolved independently from those in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The team hopes to investigate whether the two groups of birds have evolved spatial memory in the same way across different geographic regions. 

The team is also interested in learning if black-capped chickadees, which coexist with mountain chickadees in the Rocky Mountains, exhibit different spatial memory skills. They’ll continue the feeder experiment at the Mountain Research Station during the upcoming winters to collect more data.

“We don't have to travel to a remote part of the world like Antarctica to study how animals might respond to climate change. We can do it with these birds that most North Americans are familiar with. I think that’s something special about chickadees,” Taylor said.

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Social Sciences | 7.25.2019

From the Archives: Animal Research

Every year, scientists use millions of animals—mostly mice and rats—in experiments. the practice provokes passionate debates over the morality and efficacy of such research—and how to make it more humane..

Click image to see full cover: The original January-February 1999 issue that this article appeared in

Read the original article as it appeared in 1999.

The volume of biomedical research, and of trials of new therapies, has increased dramatically in recent decades, fueled by advances in understanding of the genome and how to manipulate it, methods of processing huge data sets, and fundamental discoveries such as targeted and immunological approaches to attacking cancer (see “Targeting Cancer,” May-June 2018). Greater Boston, and Harvard, are major participants in academic biomedical research, in close proximity to the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, which have set up shop locally to tap into the wealth of talent and ideas. Along the way, new research techniques that are driven by more sophisticated imaging, bioinformatics (see “Toward Precision Medicine,” May-June 2015), and “organ-on-a-chip” technology have made it possible to conduct science with less reliance on various kinds of animal-testing. Given rising social concern for and interest in animal welfare (see “Are Animals ‘Things’?” March-April 2016), these converging trends make rereading this in-depth 1999 report by John F. Lauerman on the use of animals in biomedical research still timely and important. ~The Editors

“What is man without the beasts? If the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts soon happens to man.”

~ Chief Seattle

Frederick Banting would never have begun his research without access to research animals. Before he had even spoken of his ideas, his first note to himself on the subject read: "Ligate the pancreatic ducts of dogs." The quiet Ontario doctor envisioned that severing the connection between the pancreas and the digestive system in a living animal would allow him to isolate the mysterious substance that would control diabetes.

During the first week in the laboratory, Banting and his assistant, Charles Best, operated on 10 dogs; all 10 died. Finally, in 1921, after months of experimentation, Banting and his colleagues isolated a material that kept a depancreatized dog named Marjorie alive for about 70 days. Exactly what information was gained from using dogs, and how many dogs were absolutely needed, is not clear. Work previous to Banting and Best’s, some of it in humans, had indicated the presence and importance of a hormone involved in glucose transport. Many more experienced scientists in the diabetes-research community believed that Marjorie had never been fully depancreatized, and thus may have never been diabetic. More likely, they said, the dog died of infection caused by her pancreatectomy. It’s possible that even the death of the famous Marjorie was unnecessary for the great discovery.

But the two Toronto researchers had isolated insulin, providing the first step toward producing it from pig and cow pancreas, available in bulk from slaughterhouses. The result—that Banting and Best "saw insulin"—appears to have justified all sacrifices. What’s the life of a dog, 10 dogs, a hundred? Before Banting and Best operated on dogs, we had no insulin; afterwards, we did.

Stories such as these are the reason our society and the vast majority of societies in the world accept the use of animals as a vital component of medical research.

Deeply entrenched traditions support the notion that animal welfare must bow to the best interests of humans. Animal domestication was among the first labor-saving devices. Humans have experimented with animal breeding, feeding, and disease control for thousands of years—not to benefit the animals themselves, but to insure that the owners obtained a maximum yield.

Today, those traditional practices have evolved into a scientific institution, the appropriateness of which is subject to perennial debate. In the United States alone, there are an estimated 17 million to 22 million animals in laboratory research facilities. To many people, animal research represents a doorway to the medical treatment of tomorrow. But to animal protectionists, and a growing number of other Americans, animal experimentation is a barbaric, outdated practice that—on the basis of a few notable past successes—has somehow retained its vestigial acceptability.

"Let’s say that it’s true, that animals were indispensable to the discovery of insulin," says Neal Barnard, M.D., of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, an animal-protection group. "That was a long time ago. I think to say, ‘It was done this way and there’s no other way it could have been done’ is a bit of a leap of faith, but let’s say that at the time there was no other way. You could also say that you couldn’t have settled the South without slavery. Would you still do it that way today? Just because something seemed necessary or acceptable at the time is not to say that we should do it in our time."

The Animal Debate

The legitimation of the animal-research debate challenges one of the most important and widely used scientific approaches to discovery about the human body and its diseases. Animal experimentation is often considered as much of a sine qua non to research as the Bunsen burner. But animal protectionists reply that the importance of animals to research is overrated, and that their pressure has exposed profligacy among experimenters.

In February 1997, a highly controversial collection of articles appeared in  Scientific American  on the subject of laboratory-animal research. The first, written by Barnard and Stephen Kaufman, M.D., of the Medical Research Modernization Committee, another protectionist group, advanced the view that data collected from animal experimentation are almost always redundant and unnecessary, frequently misleading, and by their very nature unlikely to provide reliable information about humans and their diseases. "Animal ‘models’ are, at best, analagous to human conditions," the authors wrote, "but no theory can be refuted or proved by analogy. Thus, it makes no logical sense to test a theory about humans using animals."

A rebuttal in support of animal research followed, by Jack Botting, Ph.D., former scientific adviser to the Research Defense Society in London, and Adrian Morrison, Ph.D., D.V.M., of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. Their reply cited examples of scientists from Louis Pasteur to John Gibbon, a twentieth-century pioneer in open-heart surgery, who made important breakthroughs in the treatment of human disease through animal research.

Many scientists—both supporters of animal research and advocates for its diminution—simply refused to discuss the difficult topic, recalls Madhusree Mukerjee, the editor who proposed that  Scientific American  explore the controversy and who wrote a third article, reporting on the overall state of animal research in the sciences. (Similar difficulties were encountered in researching the present article.) Mukerjee suspects that possible interviewees feared the criticism of their colleagues.

Reader response, on the other hand, was overwhelming, both pro and con. "We got a huge amount of flak for dealing with the subject at all," recalls Mukerjee. "Some of it was fairly frightening." To many animal-research supporters, it was as though the floodgates had been opened. "I am simply stunned that  Scientific American,  a paragon of promotion of scientific research, would actually offer up for debate whether animal research should occur," wrote one reader. "Please leave this question of animal research to animal-rights activists, and stop yourselves from turning into scientific wimps." "A lot of the scientific community felt [ Scientific American’ s editors] had overstepped their bounds and compromised their values by printing the Barnard-Kaufman article," says Joanne Zurlo, associate director of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing and a specialist in chemical carcinogenesis.

Those researchers who supported animal use and wrote in said the animal-protectionists’ side of the  Scientific American  debate was fraught with misstatements and scientific errors, although Mukerjee maintains that all the articles were painstakingly fact-checked. "We annoyed a lot of influential scientists," she says. "Our publication has spent more than a century describing advances in medical research, including some by fairly controversial figures. We’d never addressed the question of research on animals before, and in a sense it was a necessary thing to do. We probably lost some subscriptions because of it. But we are a bridge between the researchers who write for us and the public who read us, and we decided to let our readers decide for themselves."

Animal Welfare

Animal protectionists date their movement back to the times of Leonardo da Vinci and even Pythagoras, who are alleged to have been vegetarians. Numerous essayists and animal lovers have detailed their objections to the misuse of animals. Yet not long ago, virtually anyone who wanted to could conduct experiments on animals. In the 1960s, it was not uncommon to walk into a laboratory and find mice, dogs, cats, even monkeys, housed on the premises in whatever conditions researchers saw fit to provide. Banting himself frequently bought pound dogs and may even have caught dogs on his own; his collaborators recalled that he once arrived at the lab with a dog he had leashed with his tie.

Only in the nineteenth century did animal research begin to draw explicit objections from protectionists. A pivotal event occurred in England in 1874, when a lecturer at the University of Norwich demonstrated how to induce epileptic symptoms in a dog through the administration of absinthe. Objections were raised by students in the audience, and the dog was set free. Later, charges were filed against the lecturer under Dick Martin’s Act, an 1822 law that called for a fine of 10 shillings from anyone committing acts of cruelty against animals. Two years later, in 1876, Parliament passed the Cruelty to Animals Act, requiring a license for animal experimentation and placing restrictions on some painful forms of experimentation.

In the United States, minimal restrictions on animal experimentation prevailed until 1966, when the first federal Laboratory Animal Welfare Act (now known as the Animal Welfare Act, or AWA) was passed by Congress. In 1970 the AWA was broadened to require the use of appropriate pain-relieving drugs, and to include commercially bred and exhibited animals. Six years later, provisions were added covering animal transport and prohibiting animal-fighting contests. In 1985, Congress passed the Improved Standards for Laboratory Animals Act, which again strengthened the AWA by providing laboratory-animal-care standards, enforced by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspectors, and also aimed to reduce unnecessarily duplicative animal-research experimentation.

In 1976, however, the AWA was amended in a rather curious way: rats, mice, birds, horses, and farm animals were specifically excluded from its purview for reasons that are not fully clear, although the USDA’s limited resources—along with political pressure from interested parties—are likely to be among them. Since rats and mice make up more than 95 percent of all research animals in this country, the amendment effectively put the vast majority of laboratory animals outside the reach of the USDA. Since then, at least one court has ruled the 1976 amendment "arbitrary and capricious."

The Mouse Warehouse

As associate professor of surgery Arthur Lage, D.V.M., walks through the doors of Harvard Medical School’s Alpert Building, people recognize him, smile, and let us pass without showing identification. He is director of the Center for Animal Resources and Comparative Medicine and the Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery at the medical school and director of the Office of Animal Resources for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as well. We take an elevator down to a basement, where Lage swipes a card through a reader, unlocking a door to a hallway, where he speaks into a phone. A minute later, a young man clad in blue scrubs opens the door. Lage explains that he’s bringing a reporter in for a tour and that we’ll need keys to see certain rooms. The young man hands over the keys and closes the door.

At the other end of the short hallway are two doors, each leading to a sanitary changing room. When you turn the lights on in the changing rooms, the doors at either end lock automatically. After we’ve pulled blue scrubs over our clothes, Lage douses the lights and we step out of the room into another brightly lit hallway.

We’re in one of Harvard’s 16 animal facilities now, a moderately "clean" facility—meaning that it requires only minimal preparations for entry. Some laboratories would require us to remove our clothes and shower before entering; others don’t even stock scrubs. But this facility is full of mice—transgenic mice. A stray pathogen in one of the animal rooms could wipe out millions of dollars’ worth of experiments or, just as disastrous, infect a colony of mice with viruses or bacteria that might confound the results of a study.

Of course, the security isn’t intended only to repel microbes. Perhaps in frustration with perceived shortcomings in the oversight of animal experimentation, some animal-protection groups have gained a reputation for tactics that are rash and often destructive. On several occasions, animals have been "liberated" from laboratories, erasing potential results and sometimes careers. In 1989, the Animal Liberation Front took credit for the release of more than 1,200 laboratory animals, some of them infected with cryptosporidium, which can be harmful to infants and immunocompromised people. The total damage was estimated at $250,000. In 1987, a laboratory under construction at the University of California at Davis was burned; the loss was estimated at $3 million.

Although there is little evidence of violence toward animal researchers here in the United States, in Europe, where the animal- protection movement is more firmly entrenched, activists have taken aim at individuals, sometimes with disastrous results. In 1990, the infant daughter of a researcher was injured by a car bomb believed to have been set by animal protectionists. In separate, related incidents, a furrier and a breeder of cats used in experimentation were injured by letter bombs. Responsibility for the mail bombs was assumed by "The Justice Department," a militant, underground, animal-protection organization.

Even today, animal-protection groups find ways to gain access to research and testing facilities. In 1997, Michelle Rokke of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) infiltrated Huntingdon Life Sciences, a drug- and cosmetic-testing firm in East Millstone, New Jersey. Using a surveillance camera embedded in her eyeglasses, Rokke took hours of films that PETA claimed showed animals being slammed into cages and roughly handled. PETA president and co-founder Ingrid Newkirk said their investigation also revealed that young beagles’ legs were broken for another study at Huntingdon. Movie star Kim Basinger gave a press conference on Huntingdon’s lawn. In April 1998, the USDA fined Huntingdon $50,000 for AWA violations.

In the basement of the Alpert building, there is no evidence of such fury. Each room holds literally hundreds of mice in shoebox-sized cages, and there are so many of them it looks like a shoe warehouse. There are about 55,000 mice involved in research at Harvard at any one time, but that number is growing constantly. In 1997 it was closer to 50,000; by the end of 1998 it approached 58,000. By comparison, the numbers of other animals are almost negligible: about 1,300 rats, 145 rabbits, 115 hamsters, 70 guinea pigs, 67 primates, 35 pigs, 30 gerbils, 25 chicks, 20 dogs, 18 sheep, 6 cats, and 1 ferret. In addition, the New England Regional Primate Research Center in Southborough, Massachusetts, houses another 1,500 monkeys and other primates. Established at Harvard in 1966 with a grant from the National Institutes of Health, the NERPRC is one of seven such centers created by Congress in the early 1960s to serve as regional resources for scientists.

Surprisingly, there is no hint of animal smell within the basement facility. Temple Grandin of Colorado State University, a specialist in the behavior of captive animals, says that what mice really crave is some form of bedding—wood chips, paper, or shavings—which not all these animals have. Still, these laboratory animals, born and bred under fluorescent lights, are comfortable enough to live out lifespans they would never approach in the wild and, of course, to reproduce. And since almost all of them are involved in genetic studies, making sure they’re happy and healthy enough to reproduce is of vital importance. Keeping these buildings clean and free of infection is a triumph of research design. All the soiled animal cages are shuttled to one end of the laboratory where, before they re-enter, they pass through an enormous autoclaving machine that sanitizes the cages as well as the carts they sit on.

Amid the towers and technology of the medical area, animals one normally associates with a farm are a jarring sight. But Lage (pronounced lah-gee) led me through animal laboratories in the basement of the Seeley Mudd Building where we saw pigs, sheep, and rabbits held in small, clean pens. At one point, we watched eight sheep slated for experimental surgery frisk around a room that looked almost exactly like an office. If the straw were swept away, one could easily have moved in a desk and gone to work.

"We care for all these animals just as though they were covered by the [Animal Welfare] Act," Lage says proudly. "I think most of us believe that the act should cover rats and mice."

Although the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC), like the USDA, inspects laboratory-animal facilities, including those of rats and mice, AAALAC accreditation isn’t legally required to conduct animal research. "AAALAC conducts something like a ‘peer review’ assessment," Lage says. "It’s a voluntary process, subscribed to by many, many research organizations. If you decide not to go through accreditation, you have to describe your entire program every time you apply to the government for funding for animal research."

Many laboratories and commercial drug-testing companies that receive no funding from federal sources and use only rats and mice proceed with only minimal oversight from their own institutional animal care and use committees (IACUCs). But restrictions on animal research are, if anything, increasing, not abating. Not content with the level of state and federal regulation, for example, the city of Cambridge in 1989 passed its own law creating an inspector’s office with the power to make USDA-type inspections of all research facilities housing vertebrate animals, including rats and mice.

Cambridge’s current commissioner of laboratory animals, Julie Medley, D.V.M., annually inspects 34 laboratories, makes follow-up visits to some facilities (sometimes unannounced), and reviews "hundreds and hundreds" of research protocols to ensure that all experiments meet federal standards for pain control. Investigators readily comply with Medley’s suggestions for better animal care and pain control, she says, but she perceives an undercurrent among some researchers who chafe under what they perceive as excessive government intervention in their work. "I’m sure some of the principal investigators resent these regulations," she says. "It doesn’t happen that often, but there are rare occasions when I run into resistance from an investigator."

Still, for animal protectionists, the intentions of the Animal Welfare Act, AAALAC, and state inspectors are not enough. Sandi Larson, a scientific adviser to the New England Anti-Vivisection Society, who has a master’s degree in microbiology, concedes that "not all researchers are Dr. Frankensteins. But," she adds, "they have been trained to look at animals as tools. It’s ingrained in them to shut off their compassion and act like scientists. They think there’s no room for emotions." A significant portion of the animal-protection movement believes that most experimentation on animals is without merit. If animals are different enough from humans that we can dismiss their suffering as inconsequential, isn’t it just a little too convenient that they resemble us enough to be considered a source of reliable information about human physiology?

Animal Liberation 

Peter Singer was an Oxford philosophy student who had little interest in animals, domesticated or otherwise, until he had lunch with a vegetarian friend one day and they began talking about the use and abuse of animals. Singer was quickly converted to the cause, and within a few years became its champion. One of the pivotal events in the treatment of laboratory animals in this country and throughout the world was the publication of his manifesto,  Animal Liberation,  in 1975.

Just 25 years ago, some proponents of animal experimentation still held that animals’ intellectual inferiority to humans meant that they could not be accorded the same rights as humans. Some argued that animals had no consciousness or memory, that they did not think as humans did. The quality and intensity of the pain felt by animals was still subject to debate. Singer, recently appointed DeCamp professor of bioethics at Princeton University’s Center for Human Values, refuted the assertion of animals’ inequality, pointing out that our society grants equal rights to all humans without regard to IQ or ability to function. "If the demand for equality were based on the actual equality of all human beings, we would have to stop demanding equality," he wrote. "...[T]he claim to equality does not depend on intelligence, moral capacity, physical strength, or similar matters of fact."

As for consciousness and the ability to feel pain, Singer pointed out that we have no reason to believe animals lack either one. Some of the experiments he recounts make their emotional vulnerability all too clear. In the late 1950s, for instance, psychologist Harry Harlow of the University of Wisconsin embarked on a series of experiments in which he deprived young rhesus monkeys of contact with their mothers. Young monkeys who were most completely deprived of parental contact developed very bizarre behavior, and would cling to objects that supplied the most minimal comfort, such as a scrap of terrycloth. Many of his fellow researchers considered Harlow a genius for having established the importance of interpersonal contact to normal childhood development. Singer, on the other hand, pointed out that the experiments demonstrated just how much like us monkeys really are, and he condemned the inhumanity of torturing them to obtain information that could have been elucidated in many other ways, perhaps through epidemiological studies of children who had been separated from their mothers at critical periods of development.

"You can’t have it both ways," says biochemist Karin Zupko ’77, an animal-rights advocate formerly with the New England Anti-Vivisection Society. "You can’t say that animals are different enough from people so that it’s acceptable to experiment on them, but enough like people so that the results of the experiments are valid."

Models for Medicine

Scientists, however, counter that you can, in fact, gather useful information about humans from animals that seem vastly different from us. They point to the many surgical experiments performed on pigs, dogs, and monkeys that have led to advances in transplantation, heart-valve replacement, and coronary artery bypass graft surgery.

"Research on live organisms is essential for medical advance," asserts Francis D. Moore ’35, M.D. ’39, S.D. ’82, Moseley professor and surgeon-in-chief emeritus at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, respectively. As Moore has pointed out in testimony to the Massachusetts legislature and in his autobiographical book,  A Miracle and A Privilege,  the first successful human kidney transplant, in which Moore played a pivotal role in 1963, would not have been possible at that time without an understanding of immunology based on experiments in rats and mice. Important aspects of the surgery were developed in larger animals. "There’s no substitute for it," says Moore. "Some people say you can set up a computer program to act like a dog. Well, forget it. All animals have responses that we don’t understand, and there’s no way to set that up on a computer."

A great deal of our understanding of basic human physiology comes from experiments in large animals, like dogs and chimpanzees. Harvard physiologist Walter B. Cannon, A.B. 1896, M.D. ’00, S.D. ’37, for example, performed experiments on dogs for many years to understand the basic dynamics of digestion. Different animals may be selected for different purposes. A dog’s prostate differs from that of a human in having only two lobes, yet dogs, like humans, can develop benign prostatic hyperplasia.

"Not all animal models are ideal, but some cases are a perfect fit," says Arthur Lage. "Mice are certainly a very good model for studying human genes. Much of the genetic makeup of the mouse is very similar to that of a human; there are large regions of shared identity." That’s why, Lage explains, Harvard will probably double its use of mice over the next five years—to about 100,000 mice annually. The chief reason for this is transgenic-mouse technology—which allows the insertion and deletion of key disease genes into the mouse genome. These techniques allow researchers to study the impact of both subtle and drastic changes in the genome, and to make key predictions about how similar changes would affect humans. Mice can be bred, for example, with varying ability to express the  p53  gene, which has been implicated in a wide variety of cancers. Understanding how the activity of such genes affects cancer development promises to vastly increase our knowledge of treatment and prevention.

Philip Leder ’56, M.D. ’60, Andrus professor of genetics and head of the medical school’s department of genetics, who pioneered the technology, points out that transgenic mice have been used to test the safety and efficacy of new therapeutics; to detect biohazards; and to advance our knowledge of cancer. Yet he concedes this widely embraced methodology has yet to produce new therapies itself. "It’s impossible as yet to bring it home to lives of patients," he says, "because the development of diagnostics and therapeutics takes time."

There are many areas, however, where a direct connection between animal research and patient welfare can be argued. In the field of AIDS, for instance, research on animals has been making important contributions to the basic understanding, prevention, and treatment of this life-threatening disease.

In 1981, Norman Letvin ’71, M.D. ’75, received a call that would change his life. It concerned an epidemic of mysterious deaths, all caused by unusual pathogens and cancers, such as pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, cytomegalovirus, and rare lymphomas. But the patients suffering from these infections were not humans, but laboratory monkeys.

We now recognize these so-called "opportunistic infections" as signals of the presence of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS. But at that time, the disease was just being recognized in humans, the term "AIDS" itself was unknown, and the cause of all these infections was still a frightening mystery.

Letvin, now professor of medicine at Harvard, says HIV probably began as a relatively harmless virus that infected some species of African monkeys. When it crossed species lines, it did so in several directions, spreading simultaneously into both human and additional non-human primate populations. In these new populations, the infection had much more serious consequences than in the African monkeys: it was lethal. But to Letvin, the realization that a parallel syndrome was occurring in man and monkeys was a tremendous opportunity.

"A great deal of effort has been expended on trying to find rodent and rabbit models for studying HIV infections, but they have not proven terribly useful," Letvin notes. "The only way we can see what happens in the first few minutes, hours, and days after infections—questions that are essential to answer in order to develop an HIV vaccine—is by working in animal models. We are forced to work in these models if we want to answer these questions." (The number of monkeys needed for such an experiment, he hastens to point out, is relatively small: usually about six.)

In Letvin’s experiments, monkeys are inoculated with candidate vaccines against HIV. After a brief period during which the vaccine draws a response from the host monkeys’ immune system, the animals are inoculated with a strain of immunodeficiency virus that brings on an AIDS-like disease. Periodic blood samples are taken to monitor their white blood cell counts and viral replication. An experimental model that causes the monkeys to get sick is more informative, Letvin explains, because even if the vaccine doesn’t prevent infection, it may slow the course of the disease enough to be useful.

"There’s little question that exciting animal data is a major drive for the initiation of human studies," Letvin says. "It’s not a gatekeeper, but an important piece of a complex puzzle we use to determine whether to go forward with the long march into humans. There are hundreds of approaches one could take. If a strategy does look promising, an animal trial makes it easier to determine whether it’s worth spending millions of dollars to measure its safety and efficacy in humans."

Letvin points out that an AIDS vaccine would save millions of human lives, particularly in populations where expensive treatment is not available. Thus the use of animals in research on diseases such as AIDS seems fated to continue for years to come. If the past is any indication, it will probably yield a rich crop of new medical information.

Perhaps the more accurate question then—under the circumstances—is, how much do we care about animal suffering? Is it worthwhile to consider that issue in our quest for better treatment for diseases?

The Three R’s

Since Peter Singer formulated his ideas, the animal-protection movement has gone from a series of staccato eruptions to a steady influence on the course of medical research. Everyone involved in the animal-research debate admits that the situation has changed considerably during the last 25 years. Ernie Prentice, a nationally recognized expert in the regulation and ethics of animal research and a member of the institutional animal care and use committee at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, can remember a time when animals were routinely subjected to painful measures without pain control. In one well-publicized experiment, pigs were burned without anesthetic; in another long-running research project, monkeys were subjected to traumatic blows to the head without analgesics. Animals progressed to the end stages of artificially induced malignancies, renal failure, and heart disease, all without any form of pain control.

"Those kinds of projects would not be permitted now. They would be unacceptable for at least two reasons," says Prentice. "One is that we now have regulations that clearly ban this kind of experimentation, and those regulations are adequately enforced to make sure that they’re followed. At the same time, there is heightened ethical sensitivity among both researchers and IACUCs. If you had sat in on a meeting of an IACUC in 1985 and were able to compare the level of discussion back then with what goes on today, you would see a tremendous difference."

Increasingly, members of the protection community are taking legal steps to gain input into animal-treatment guidelines, and have found more conventional ways to exert pressure. Marc Jurnove, a member of the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), is suing the USDA for "aesthetic and recreational injuries" that he suffered when seeing the living conditions of chimpanzees and apes at a Long Island zoo. Jurnove charged that the USDA failed to adopt and enforce adequate standards for the animals’ well-being, as is required by the AWA. This past September, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the nation’s most influential circuit court, upheld Jurnove’s right to sue. Recently, the ALDF also led animal-rights groups in successfully suing the National Academy of Sciences for access to records and to committee meetings pertaining to a guide on the care and use of laboratory animals.

Some major funding organizations have also embraced the animal-rights movement. The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, with assets of $1.25 billion, is one of the 25 wealthiest philanthropies in the country. Although it funds medical research, one of its restrictions is that animals not be used as subjects. This creates a sticky situation for the board, which hopes to fund research on AIDS, cancer, heart disease, and sickle-cell anemia, areas heavily dependent on animal research in the past.

But the effort to occupy a middle ground, supporting the principles of reduction, replacement, and refinement of animal research while acknowledging its necessity, has been extremely frustrating.

Several research institutions have established centers of animal-rights advocacy. The Center for Animals and Public Policy at Tufts University and the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing at Johns Hopkins University, for example, have tried to establish liaisons with both protectionists and researchers. "I wasn’t running around throwing bombs," says Andrew Rowan, Ph.D., former director of the Tufts Center and now senior vice president of the Humane Society of the United States. "I was engaging colleagues in scientific debate without being obstreperous. People were shouting past each other." Veterinarian Peter Theran, vice president of the health and hospitals division of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and director of the MSPCA’s Center for Laboratory Animal Welfare, says that his group has had to walk a fine line. "We try to maintain a rapport with both sides," he stresses. "I have to say that we often don’t agree with some of the more aggressive groups, like PETA. But there’s a tendency to paint the animal-welfare community with a broad brush. And that makes dialogue extremely difficult."

"When you say you’re for animal welfare, you’re perceived as rabid," says Joanne Zurlo of the Johns Hopkins center. "At the same time, we can’t deal with groups like PETA because they believe in abolition of animal use. When we organized the first World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences in 1993, we invited representatives from every organization to sit at the table. PETA would not join. Even the American AntiVivisection Society sent a representative, but members of the hard-line groups who were picketing outside hounded her and called her a murderer."

Human Lives, Humane Experiments

The growth of the animal-protection debate has been fraught with acrimony. The results, however, go beyond the additional credibility that has been afforded animal protectionists. Scientists, too, find that they can be more open about the feelings they have or may have had for the creatures in their care, and are more free to explore alternative methods of experimentation.

"All of us, whether we’re doing research on animals or not, recognize that this is something that is not optimal," Andrew Rowan says. "If society didn’t feel that we needed the information, we wouldn’t do research on animals. But society feels we do, and so do scientists. There’s a tension between our concern about causing pain and distress and killing animals and our need for new knowledge. No one would say that the animals in research benefit from it, and in a world that was perfect we wouldn’t be doing this. We’re engaged in encouraging people to make animal welfare a higher priority without compromising their ability to gather information."

Neal Barnard, of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, argues that the route away from animal research should carry us toward population-based efforts like the Framingham Heart Study, in which heart researchers have closely followed the health habits and outcomes of 5,000 adults for just over 50 years. That study was a key factor in galvanizing current national efforts to lower cholesterol, combat hypertension, and encourage proper diet and exercise to reduce mortality from heart disease.

"Those areas where we struggle the most, clinically, are those where we haven’t exploited good clinical research and are relying on animal models," Barnard says. "Look at cardiac defects. We don’t know how they’re caused because no one has done the equivalent of the Framingham study for heart defects, even though it’s quite feasible. The Centers for Disease Control and organizations study these congenital abnormalities only in a very haphazard way.

"Of course," he continues, "there have been some brilliant exceptions, such as the research on neural tube defects. It was found through observation of humans that these defects were associated with deficiencies in folic acid, and that by taking vitamin supplements you can reduce the risk. The same with fetal alcohol syndrome: the breakthroughs came in studying humans, not animals."

Politics frequently obscures our view of research bias, Barnard says. He has called for a Framingham-style study of the health implications of cow’s milk consumption, which has been implicated in some studies as a possible cause of Type 1 diabetes in children. Barnard believes that the political strength of the dairy industry has kept such a study from becoming a reality even though some 700,000 Americans suffer from Type 1 diabetes.

Even within the scientific community, there is an increasing willingness to admit that current research methods can be improved upon. A wide variety of in vitro tests have been proposed (among them, the use of human tissue culture and in vitro cell-culture assays), as well as increased reliance on computer modeling and the creative application of human epidemiological studies. Both government and industry experts agree that if new techniques eliminate or reduce the use of animals, so much the better. "[T]he current rodent bioassay for assessing carcinogenicity costs $1 million to $3 million and requires at least 3 years to complete," reads the summary of a January 1997 meeting of the Scientific Group on Methodologies for the Safety Evaluation of Chemicals. The main topic of the meeting was the development of alternatives to animal research, and the report continues, "More efficient testing methods may reduce the time required to bring new products to the marketplace and increase the amount of useful information that can be obtained."

Most researchers recognize that the humane treatment of animals isn’t only compassionate—it’s also good science. Imagine trying to measure the effect of blood-pressure medication on a dog that hasn’t been walked in days. We now know that animals’ feelings, behavior, and emotions have a profound effect on their physiological functioning—as is the case with humans. Consequently, after strong initial opposition to the Animal Welfare Act, most researchers have come to support it.

The Humane Society of the United States represents one example of how animal protectionists can set reasonably limited goals that promote animal welfare in ways that better serve both animals and humans. "We’ve contacted animal care and use committees and asked them to work with us to identify techniques that cause pain and distress and figure out ways to share ways to eliminate that in research," says HSUS’s Andrew Rowan. "Some of the committees are rather suspicious; they see a hidden attempt to stop all animal research. The response has been slight so far. But we think that most researchers are bright people and will understand that our primary goal is just to eliminate animal suffering wherever possible."

Norman Letvin, who frequently debates animal protectionists, knows that there are many who would like to end the practice of animal research for good. Although he is ready and willing to discuss the morality and ethics of his work, he thinks that calling an end to the practice would hurt society enormously.

"It is very easy to take an absolutist position and say it is wrong to cause the death of another living animal," Letvin says. "The difficulty in what [researchers] do comes in saying, ‘I understand that what I’m doing is causing the death of a limited number of animals, but I’m making a judgment that the information gained from this limited, focused experiment will yield results that will justify doing the study.’ Many humans infected with viruses or suffering from cancer or heart disease enter into studies that allow the development of new therapeutics. Every day, thousands of humans say, ‘It is worth it for me to be involved in those studies because, even though I probably won’t benefit, others will.’ In the end, the decisions I’m making with respect to experimental animals are not dissimilar."

As we walked to a new facility on Longwood Avenue, Arthur Lage reminded me that it was the former site of Angell Memorial Animal Hospital, which has since moved to Huntington Avenue in Jamaica Plain. He points out where horses were tethered in the courtyard as they waited to be seen by a veterinarian. He indicates a barely visible tower protruding from the rear roof where distempered dogs were once quarantined. "It was hard work," he recalls, somewhat wistfully, of the internship and residency he served at Angell. "But it was rewarding. You might sit up all night with a sick dog or cat, trying to save its life."

Today, Lage cannot devote as much time to saving animals’ lives. Instead, as he says, he’s helping save human lives through animal research, while ensuring that animals are used humanely. Embodied in his work are many of the contradictions that many of us feel when we consider the millions of animals—from mice to monkeys—that annually give their lives for human health. The use of animals in research will not end today, nor tomorrow, but opinions on the matter appear to be evolving, perhaps toward a better life for animals in the laboratory, and toward better science.

John Lauerman used to write the magazine’s " Harvard Health " column. He is coauthor of a book on diabetes and, with Thomas Perls, M.P.H. ’93, M.D., and Margery H. Silver, Ed.D. ’82, of  Living to 100,  forthcoming from Basic Books in March.

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Martha Nussbaum

Excerpted from “Justice for Animals: Our Collective Responsibility” by Martha C. Nussbaum, M.A. ’71, Ph.D. ’75

Animals are in trouble all over the world. Our world is dominated by humans everywhere: on land, in the seas, and in the air. No non-human animal escapes human domination. Much of the time, that domination inflicts wrongful injury on animals: whether through the barbarous cruelties of the factory meat industry, through poaching and game hunting, through habitat destruction, through pollution of the air and the seas, or through neglect of the companion animals that people purport to love.

In a way, this problem is age-old. Both Western and non-Western philosophical traditions have deplored human cruelty to animals for around two millennia. The Hindu emperor Ashoka (c. 304–232 bce), a convert to Buddhism, wrote about his efforts to give up meat and to forgo all practices that harmed animals. In Greece the Platonist philosophers Plutarch (46–119 ce) and Porphyry (c. 234–305 ce) wrote detailed treatises deploring human cruelty to animals, describing their keen intelligence and their capacity for social life, and urging humans to change their diet and their way of life. But by and large these voices have fallen on deaf ears, even in the supposedly moral realm of the philosophers, and most humans have continued to treat most animals like objects, whose suffering does not matter — although they sometimes make an exception for companion animals. Meanwhile, countless animals have suffered cruelty, deprivation, and neglect.

Because the reach of human cruelty has expanded, so too has the involvement of virtually all people in it. Even people who do not consume meat produced by the factory farming industry are likely to have used single-use plastic items, to use fossil fuels mined beneath the ocean and polluting the air, to dwell in areas in which elephants and bears once roamed, or to live in high-rise buildings that spell death for migratory birds. The extent of our own implication in practices that harm animals should make every person with a conscience consider what we can all do to change this situation. Pinning guilt is less important than accepting the fact that humanity as a whole has a collective duty to face and solve these problems.

So far, I have not spoken of the extinction of animal species, because this is a book about loss and deprivation suffered by individual creatures, each of whom matters. Species as such do not suffer loss. However, extinction never takes place without massive suffering of individual creatures: the hunger of a polar bear, starving on an ice floe, unable to cross the sea to hunt; the sadness of an orphan elephant, deprived of care and community as the species dwindles rapidly; the mass extinctions of song-bird species as a result of unbreathable air, a horrible death. When human practices hound species toward extinction, member animals always suffer greatly and live squashed and thwarted lives. Besides, the species themselves matter for creating diverse ecosystems in which animals can live well.

Extinctions would take place even without human intervention. Even in such cases we might have reasons to intervene to stop them, because of the importance of biodiversity. But scientists agree that today’s extinctions are between one thousand and ten thousand times higher than the natural extinction rate. (Our uncertainty is huge, because we are very ignorant of how many species there actually are, particularly where fish and insects are concerned.) Worldwide, approximately one-quarter of the world’s mammals and over 40 percent of amphibians are currently threatened with extinction. These include several species of bear, the Asian elephant (endangered), the African elephant (threatened), the tiger, six species of whale, the gray wolf, and so many more. All in all, more than 370 animal species are either endangered or threatened, using the criteria of the US Endangered Species Act, not including birds, and a separate list of similar length for birds. Asian songbirds are virtually extinct in the wild, on account of the lucrative trade in these luxury items. And many other species of birds have recently become extinct. Meanwhile, the international treaty called CITES that is supposed to protect birds (and many other creatures) is toothless and unenforced. The story of this book is not that story of mass extinction, but the sufferings of individual creatures that take place against this background of human indifference to biodiversity.

“The extent of our own implication in practices that harm animals should make every person with a conscience consider what we can all do to change this situation.”

There is a further reason why the ethical evasion of the past must end now. Today we know far more about animal lives than we did even 50 years ago. We know much too much for the glib excuses of the past to be offered without shame. Porphyry and Plutarch (and Aristotle before them) knew a lot about animal intelligence and sensitivity. But somehow humans find ways of “forgetting” what the science of the past has plainly revealed, and for many centuries most people, including most philosophers, thought animals were “brute beasts,” automata without a subjective sense of the world, without emotions, without society, and perhaps even without the feeling of pain.

Recent decades, however, have seen an explosion of high-level research covering all areas of the animal world. We now know more not only about animals long closely studied — primates and companion animals — but also about animals who are difficult to study — marine mammals, whales, fish, birds, reptiles, and cephalopods.

We know — not just by observation, but by carefully designed experimental work — that all vertebrates and many invertebrates feel pain subjectively, and have, more generally, a subjectively felt view of the world: the world looks like something to them. We know that all of these animals experience at least some emotions (fear being the most ubiquitous), and that many experience emotions like compassion and grief that involve more complex “takes” on a situation. We know that animals as different as dolphins and crows can solve complicated problems and learn to use tools to solve them. We know that animals have complex forms of social organization and social behavior. More recently, we have been learning that these social groups are not simply places where a rote inherited repertory is acted out, but places of complicated social learning. Species as different as whales, dogs, and many types of birds clearly transmit key parts of the species’ repertoire to their young socially, not just genetically.

What are the implications of this research for ethics? Huge, clearly. We can no longer draw the usual line between our own species and “the beasts,” a line meant to distinguish intelligence, emotion, and sentience from the dense life of a “brute beast.” Nor can we even draw a line between a group of animals we already recognize as sort of “like us” — apes, elephants, whales, dogs — and others who are supposed to be unintelligent. Intelligence takes multiple and fascinating forms in the real world, and birds, evolving by a very different path from humans, have converged on many similar abilities. Even an invertebrate such as the octopus has surprising capacities for intelligent perception: an octopus can recognize individual humans, and can solve complex problems, guiding one of its arms through a maze to obtain food using only its eyes. Once we recognize all this we can hardly be unchanged in our ethical thinking. To put a “brute beast” in a cage seems no more wrong than putting a rock in a terrarium. But that is not what we are doing. We are deforming the existence of intelligent and complexly sentient forms of life. Each of these animals strives for a flourishing life, and each has abilities, social and individual, that equip it to negotiate a decent life in a world that gives animals difficult challenges. What humans are doing is to thwart this striving — and this seems wrong.

But even though the time has come to recognize our ethical responsibility to the other animals, we have few intellectual tools to effect meaningful change. The third reason why we must confront what we are doing to animals now, today, is that we have built a world in which two of humanity’s best tools for progress, law and political theory, have, so far, no or little help to offer us. Law — both domestic and international — has quite a lot to say about the lives of companion animals, but very little to say about any other animals. Nor do animals in most nations have what lawyers call “standing”: that is, the status to bring a legal claim if they are wronged. Of course, animals cannot themselves bring a legal claim, but neither can most humans, including children, people with cognitive disabilities — and, to tell the truth, almost everybody, since people have little knowledge of the law. All of us need a lawyer to press our claims. But all the humans I have mentioned — including people with lifelong cognitive disabilities — count, and can bring a legal claim, assisted by an able advocate. The way we have designed the world’s legal systems, animals do not have this simple privilege. They do not count.

Law is built by humans using the theories they have. When those theories were racist, laws were racist. When theories of sex and gender excluded women, so too did law. And there is no denying that most political thought by humans the world over has been human-centered, excluding animals. Even the theories that purport to offer help in the struggle against abuse are deeply defective, built on an inadequate picture of animal lives and animal striving. As a philosopher and political theorist who is also deeply immersed in law and law teaching, I hope to change things with this book.

Copyright © 2022 by Martha Nussbaum. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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MPs (still) don't understand animal research

Letter from Lord Sharpe of Epsom responding to the ASC forced swim test report

UK animal rights extremists cleared of ‘psychological warfare’ on businessman

The woman behind the genomic scissors CRISPR-Cas9

Register now for the Openness in Animal Research Conference

UAR’s Top Animal Research Stories of 2023

UAR forces Daily Mirror to correct misleading article

Animal Research News: November and December 2023

Openness Awards and Paget Lecture 2023

Procedures carried out on animals in Northern Ireland, 2022

"Sex and drugs: my rock and roll": Introducing the 2023 Paget Lecturer, Professor Amrita Ahluwalia

What does Will Young have to do with animal testing?

Animal Research News: October 2023

Animal research behind Donanemab, the new Alzheimer’s drug

The animal research behind the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Sponsorship Opportunities for Openness Conference NOW OPEN

The animal research behind the first ever womb transplant in the UK

Testing skin care products without animals

Animal Research News: September 2023

Animal Research News: August 2023

Engaging with the public about animal research: The Francis Crick Institute

Abstract and Workshop Submissions for Openness Conference NOW OPEN

Humane Animal Research honoured with a British Empire Medal

Ten organisations account for half of all animal research in Great Britain in 2022

Animal research statistics for Great Britain, 2022

Animal Research News: June and July 2023

Why do 90% of new drugs fail?

Animal Research News: May 2023

What sheep brains can tell us about Huntington’s disease

Leaders in Openness 2023 - 2026

Mice in research: what types of mice are used in research?

Openness in Animal Research: A Conference to Celebrate a Decade of the Concordat

Celebrate openness with #MiceInResearch (9 - 12 May 2023)

Animal Research News: April 2023

Contact lenses and animal testing

EU-wide animal research statistics, 2020

Animal Research News: March 2023

Supporting neural plasticity – the 2023 Brain prize

Frogs in medical research

Why using both male and female animals in experiments matters

The reality of chicken research

Animal Research News: February 2023

Another flawed petition, another woefully misinformed debate in Parliament

Women influencing the animal research sector

A career devoted to caring for lab animals

Animal Research News: January 2023

Studying liver disease in animals

The reality of rabbit research

UAR's Top 10 Animal Research Stories of 2022

Animal Research News: November and December 2022

The importance of non-human primates in neuroscience

Openness Awards and Paget Lecture 2022

Introducing the 2022 Paget Lecturer

How animal models help prostate cancer research

DNA sampling in fish, the non-invasive way

The animal research behind a new Alzheimer's drug

Animal Research News: October 2022

Procedures carried out on animals in Northern Ireland, 2021

On the search for a mouse model of ADHD

Monkeypox is not a monkey disease

Animal Research News: August and September 2022

Fighting deadly brain-infecting fungi

Animal Research News: June and July 2022

EU-wide animal research statistics, 2019

A history of mice in scientific research

Animal research statistics for Great Britain, 2021

Ten organisations account for half of all animal research in Great Britain in 2021

Animal Research News: May 2022

25 years after Dolly the sheep – cloning today

Huntington’s disease: 30 years after the discovery of the gene

Leaders in Openness 2022 - 2025 Announced

How do you study stress in mice?

How to handle mice to minimise their distress

Using mice to understand the complexity of ovarian cancer

#MiceInResearch celebrating the 8th anniversary of the Concordat on Openness

Animal Research News: April 2022

How to create a sector-leading website on animal research

What’s the problem with a ‘scientific hearing’ on animal tests?

Parkinson’s disease: What are we looking for now?

Animal Research News: March 2022

Talking to your colleagues about animal research

Learning to walk again: the history of spinal cord implants

The gender gap in heart disease research

Animal Research News: February 2022

How are flu vaccines made?

Is animal research ethical?

How women are paving the way for welfare in animal research

Animal Research News: January 2022

Pig to human heart transplants: how did we get here?

Vlogging about animal research

UAR’s animal research highlights of 2021

100 years of diabetes research

COVID-19 research must go on

Openness Awards and Paget Lecture 2021

Sixty years on: the history of the thalidomide tragedy

Introducing the 2021 Paget Lecturer

Ten times Dr Ray Greek misled Ricky Gervais about animal testing

Zebrafish at the heart of regeneration therapy

Do fish feel pain?

Fighting the world's most deadly animal: the mosquito

Procedures carried out on animals in Northern Ireland, 2020

Zero carbon labs

Antibodies factsheet

2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: Discovering how we feel heat and touch

Depression and magic mushrooms: could synthetic psilocybin cure untreatable depression?

How is climate change affecting Antarctic animals?

What is an AWERB and how does it help promote high standards of animal welfare in research?

New Zealand launches an Openness Agreement on Animal Research and Teaching

EU-wide animal research statistics, 2018

Animal research statistics for Great Britain, 2020

Ten organisations account for half of all animal research in Great Britain in 2020

A new animal model for late-stage multiple sclerosis

What exactly is a culture of care? And why is it important for animal welfare?

Can you give a brain organoid Alzheimer’s?

Leaders in Openness 2021 – 2024 Announced

What does it mean to genetically modify an animal

Researching new antidepressants with swimming mice

A history of vaccines

Animal research and malaria

The COVID-19 vaccine for animals

Why caring for laboratory animals is a rewarding career

Endometriosis: a painful lack of research

How effective is the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine?

Cancer avatars: the future for personalised medicine?

Top 10 COVID-19 vaccine myths

RNA vaccines: a new tool against COVID-19

Antibiotic resistance: superbugs that kill

The secret lives of mice: using the public to research mouse behaviour

Biofluorescence: mammals that glow in the dark

T'is the season to be ... a zombie deer?

Leaders in Openness 2020 – 2023 Announced

Openness Awards and Paget Lecture 2020

COVID-19: From your toilet to the sea, will your waste kill seals and whales?

Why we must stop Covid-19 gaining a foothold in animals

Study in mice shows that allergies can be passed on to offspring

Covid-19 may affect sperm and future generations

Procedures carried out on animals in Northern Ireland, 2019

Why are scientists tickling rats?

How virus tracking can help us prevent future pandemics

The secret lives of naked-mole rats

Animal research and COVID-19

Factsheet on the forced swim test

FBI: the bureau for fish welfare

2020 Nobel Prize for Chemistry awarded for the development of a method for genome editing

2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded for discovery of Hepatitis C virus

‘Young’ microbiota can reverse ageing of the immune system and boost vaccines

Beyond blue blood: the horseshoe crab debate

Childbirth: Why some women experience less pain than others

Could a drug for cat coronavirus cure COVID-19?

Backup livers grown in pigs

A new smartphone device to detect horse respiratory diseases

Free eLearning resource on 'blinding' in animal experiments

Did you know elephants can get herpes and die from it?

From humans to cats: learning more about Lyme disease in felines

The Milky way of Medicine: want a cup of drugs?

Animal research statistics for Great Britain, 2019

Ten organisations account for half of all animal research in Great Britain in 2019

The increase in zoonotic diseases: the WHO, the why and the when?

How social isolation affects your body

The science of sniffs: disease smelling dogs

How organoids are bringing the study of bats to the lab

COVID-19 research exposes activists' lack of evidence

Masks reduce COVID-19 transmission between hamsters

What mice studies can tell us about the effect of anxiety on sleep

Remdesivir trials effective against coronaviruses in animals and humans

Could llama antibodies treat viruses like COVID-19?

Do we need to test all new drugs in two species?

High public acceptance of animal research to find treatments for COVID-19

Animal research and pregnancy testing: a history

Can we fight COVID-19 without animal testing?

Is COVID-19 isolation making your dog as anxious as you?

Can your cat catch coronavirus?

Warning signs of the coronavirus: why we knew about it and couldn't stop it

Why we need more women in labs

What happened to wildlife after Chernobyl?

The benefits and risks of neutering pets

I wail, you wail, we all wail for whale day

Chair of UAR Council, Jeremy Pearson, awarded MBE

EU-wide animal research statistics, 2017

Plastics are ruining the sex-lives of worms and could be affecting yours too

To study the brain we need monkeys

Openness Awards and Paget Lecture 2019

Introducing the 2019 Paget Lecturer

Procedures carried out on animals in Northern Ireland, 2018

Respiratory disease: asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Why do bats have such a bad reputation?

Drug Discovery with Venom

Bony research: how zebrafish are helping osteoarthritis research

2019 Nobel Prize: sensing and adapting to oxygen

Preventing Bad Law with UAR's Policy Work

Our Favourite Posts From the Last 10 Years

Animal research statistics for Great Britain, 2018

Ten organisations account for half of all animal research in Great Britain in 2018

Animals Help us understand Motor Neurone Disease

How sickle cell protects against Malaria

Celebrities impact public view of animal research

Animals to humans, how blood saves lives

Researching for a cure for multiple sclerosis

Reddit AMA with Frances Wiseman

Creating the European Animal Research Association

Researching stroke using zebrafish

Leaders in Openness 2019 - 2022 Announced

How do you study stress in an animal?

Why vaccinate your pets?

Haemophilia, the royal disease

Advances in 3R’s

Highlighting the role of vets in research

10 years of rat research – how stroke studies have evolved

Tuberculosis in Zebrafish

Ricky Gervais doesn't understand animal research

Did animal tests delay penicillin by 10 years?

Why we need female mice in drug trials

Using mainly male mice in drug trials can be problem for women health.

Why do so many promising compounds never become drugs?

Why do possible drugs fail to make it to the chemist?

A journey to the clean side

How we made our 360 degree lab tours

Human diseases are threatening chimpanzees

A human common cold can be lethal to a chimp

The Nipah Virus – a rare but deadly disease

Ten years of research with mice

Some highlights from a decade of research with mice

International Day of Women and Girls in Science

Timeline of cancer research and treatment

Recent advances in cancer research

Ten years of Understanding Animal Research

UAR's new strategy

Primate research in 2018

Vote animal research scientist for new £50 note

Openness Awards and Paget Lecture 2018

Ten universities account for a third of all animal research in Great Britain in 2017

Additional animal research statistics for Great Britain, 2017

Animal research in conversation

Procedures carried out on animals in Northern Ireland, 2017

Nobel Prize 2018

BA faces legal challenge for refusing to fly lab animals

In defence of animal testing

Migrating small birds flying at 4000m

Guide to writing non-technical summaries

Animal research statistics for Great Britain, 2017

Manchester University animal unit virtual tour

Tracking killer T cells in pigs for flu vaccine development

Killer fungus comes from Korea

3Rs prize for cardiac model

Alzheimer’s Researchers win 2018 Brain Prize

UAR's response to the Draft Animal Welfare Bill inquiry

Openness Awards and Paget Lecture 2017

Procedures carried out on animals in Northern Ireland, 2016

Understanding Drug 'Prediction'

Ten universities account for a third of all animal research in Great Britain in 2016

No changes to EU Directive proposed in European Commission review

Circadian rhythm science wins 2017 Nobel

Dr Mark Dallas Reddit Ask Me Anything

Zebrafish host human cancers

Roger Lemon Reddit Ask Me Anything

Animal research statistics for Great Britain, 2016

Why the anti-vivisection movement took an absolutist view

UAR at Cambridge BRAINFest 2017

Four animal laboratories open their digital doors to the public

Karen Mifsud Reddit Ask Me Anything

World Parkinson’s Disease Day 2017

Cambridge shows how animal studies are helping us understand OCD

Postcards from the post-fact front line: Pseudoscience and non-sequiturs as a rationale against research

Artificial 'embryos' created in the lab

Bird flu in China

Tilapia lake virus discovered

Hearing restored in deaf mice using gene therapy

'Tinder' for orangutans

Cats as intelligent as dogs?

60% of primates face extinction

Evolution of menopause

Openness Awards and Paget Lecture 2016

Animal research statistics for Great Britain, 2015

Male biased mice studies

Drug trail against Ebola

20 years since Dolly the Cloned Sheep

Cancer resistance in naked mole-rats

How chickens store sperm

Human-pig embryo for transplants

Vaccine against cancer

Pig cornea transplant cures sight in 200 blind people

New leaflets from UAR

Dogs catch infectious cancer while mating

Bd: Frog Plague

Gene edited cows make no horns

Fat labradors give clues to obesity epidemic

Memory formation mapped in rats

Grubby mice help immune research

21 Belgian research organisations unite in support of animal research

Tiger numbers up

British public misled over cosmetic tests

Pig heart beats for two years in a baboon

Animal welfare at Oxford University

Animal research at Imperial College

British harbour seals fitted with smartphone technology

Fungi help woodpeckers create new nest-holes

Zika: monkeys, mice, and mosquitoes

Reversing cancer in frogs

Interview with Xavier Montagutelli, Pasteur Institute

Vision restored in rabbits following stem cell transplantation

Could this tarantula be a solution to chronic pain?

Pro-Test 10-year Anniversary

Pro-Test 10 Year Anniversary

3D-printed body parts

The year of anniversaries

Colin Blakemore Reddit Ask Me Anything

Mice with bear bacteria got fatter

Destroying worn out cells makes mice live longer

Telling stories with numbers

Human ear grown on the back of a rat

Does the recent death in a clinical trial in France make us reconsider animal testing?

Scientists create cow cartilage in the lab

Singing mice - monitoring ultrasound for animal welfare

Acute myeloid leukaemia genes identified

Training monitor lizards not to eat toxic toads 

This year in animal research - 2015

A subjective review of the years animal research stories

This week in animal research 18/12/15

Badger cull, sea-lion deaths, psoriasis treatment

Patient-derived xenografts in breast cancer research

The National Cancer Research Institute Conference discussed models for breast cancer research.

Dispelling myths around animal research

This week in animal research 11/12/15

Openness Awards and Paget Lecture 2015

This week in animal research 4/12/15

A picture painted by a thousand papers

100,000 birds killed every year from lead shot poisoning

Lead poisoned birds, treatment for arthritis

'Without anaesthetic' - reading animal statistics

When lab rats are released into the wild

The Laboratory Rat - A Natural History

This week in animal research 201115

Mainly conservation this week

This week in animal research 13/11/15

Toxins in 3D printers

Zebrafish showed 3D printer polymers are toxic

Rat study explains why so many alcohol drinkers are also smokers

Scorpions, kangaroos and more

Can you see the bird?

This week in animal research 30-10-15

Suffragettes and other animals

Surprising historical links between the suffragette movement and animal rights activism

Poo turns naked mole rats into better babysitters

Animal research statistics for Great Britain, 2014

This week in animal research 161015

Video of the week - NC3Rs Dog Husbandry

Housing and husbandry of dogs

This week in animal research 09/10/15

Elephants rarely get cancer

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015

The 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been jointly won by Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar for “mechanistic studies of DNA repair".

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2015

Won by William C Campbell, Satoshi Ōmura and Youyou Tu.

This week in animal research 02/10/15

Concordat Annual Report 2015

Good first year for the Concordat on Openness

Lab grown kidneys work in animals

Three cancers, two dementias and xenotransplants

Cosmetics are NOT tested on animals

More myths busted

The Safer Medicines campaign contains flawed arguments

Elephants born to stressed mothers age faster

French virtual lab tour

Scorpion helps identify cancerous tissue

Meningitis B vaccine available to newborns

Fish and newts regenerate limbs

Killer snails eat fish

Is FRAME abandoning the centre ground?

Triggering bacterial defence

How malaria raises cancer risk

Video of the week: Life in the Mariana Trench

Sheep gives birth to a mouflon

How snails hunt fish

New ebola vaccine works

Owls and hearing

History of the Pacemaker

Rett Syndrome symptoms reversed in mice

Can your pet be allergic to humans ?

Boa constrictors don’t suffocate, they stop blood flow

The cure fallacy

Pacemakers: a short history

Brain speed cells track movement

New dog-breeding facilities will improve animal welfare

Dog breeding facility gets the go-ahead

In vitro: the remarkable rise of animal alternatives

Hormone slows down breast cancer growth in mice

Why Testing on Prisoners is a Bad Idea

What do rats dream about?

Cystic fibrosis gene therapy works

GM pigs resist swine fever

Demented dog or senile cat ?

Juvenile camels ‘key source’ of MERS

Llama antibodies reach the parts others do not

Why Animals Are Needed in Research

Wild chimpanzees drinking fermented palm sap

Hedgehogs, going, going...

The reason the European Citizens’ Initiative failed is the reason anti-research campaigns are failing generally

Climbing perch have lungs and gills

Anti-research European Citizen’s Initiative fails

Badgers; the cull or the research

Mice in space develop thin skin

Ten Tips for Debating Animal Research

Advice from our recent workshop

Octopuses can see with their skin

Vision restored in blind mice

Link between Diabetes and Alzheimer's

Penguins use guano to melt snow

Captured on film: animal research at Cambridge and Imperial College

World Day for Animals in Laboratories

Ebola drug cures monkeys infected with the virus

Nicotine use increases alcohol consumption in rats

UKIP pledges to introduce existing regulatory system if elected

Green animal research policy – scientifically illiterate, unethical and doomed to fail

Animal research in the 2015 General Election

Sixty years of the polio 'miracle' vaccine

Gibbons can use more than 450 different calls

Video: mouse cage enrichment

Vitamin D prevents diabetes and clogged arteries in mice

Working to reduce the use of animals in scientific research

Green Hill judge ignores independent vets

Evolution of the anus

Did the government really ban animal tests for household cleaners?

How chameleons change colour

Mice use more of their fathers DNA than their mothers

Male only medical trials can endanger females

Protecting medical progress and lab animal welfare in Europe

What about sewing the heads of monkeys onto other monkeys?

Llamas immune to HIV

Mary Lyon: 20th century geneticist

Limpet teeth strongest biological material

Let in the Lynx

Gerbils more tolerant of plague than rats

BBC TV: Can you cure my cancer?

Cleaner fish

Ballan wrasse control salmon lice

This week in animal research: w/e 06 Feb 2015

Key news from the week

3-Person IVF and the monkeys that made it possible

British MPs voted in favour of 3 person IVF

AstraZeneca plans for Cambridge HQ get go-ahead

This week in animal research: w/e 30 January 15

Videos of the week: MRC research with macaques

Animal research gives vaccines against cervical cancer

How mice have revolutionised what we know about memory

Armadillos roll out treatments for leprosy

Blood transfusions from young to old mice regenerate stem cells

Stolen pets and pseudoscience: 20 years of campaigners misleading the public.

Testing badgers for TB better than culling

Wirelessly charged pacemaker tested in rabbits

Animals get STI's as well as humans

Ebola studied in guinea pigs

After UAR complaint ASA rules NAVS misleading public

Openness Awards and Paget Lecture 2014

Rabbits, fish and mice, but no rock hyrax

The importance of teaching about animal reseach in schools

Switching off appetite in mice

A breakthrough treatment for Ebola

A CRISPR future for genetic modification

Why do scientists use zebrafish in research?

Vaccine for dust-mite allergies

A closer look at the animal research statistics for Great Britain, 2013

Animal research statistics for Great Britain, 2013

Declines in insectivorous birds associated with high neonicotinoid concentrations

Animal research in the movies

New cell creation which may cause "infantile amnesia"

Ten years of success from the 3Rs

Should neonicotinoids be banned permanently?

Monarch butterflies use magnetic compass to migrate

Kidney regeneration

The Secrecy Law That Is Heading For the Scrapheap

Porcine epidemic virus

How refining animal research can lead to more experiments

Scientist Colin Blakemore Knighted

GM mosquitos used to reduce wild mosquito population

Look before you leap

Charities communicating animal research

A Brave New World

The A-Z(T) of anti-science

Openness is more than just a PR exercise

When did you last hear a cuckoo?

Venom: Turning Toxicity on its Head

The Concordat is here!

Concordat on Openness on Animal Research launched today

Why are we still waiting for a cure?

Why science doesn't work without curiosity

The FoI press-release approach to campaigning

Standing up for Science

First gene therapy trial for deafness

Brain tumour cells burst by potential new treatment

Transplant stories

Openness in animal research news

Activist Debbie Vincent guilty of conspiracy to blackmail

Vaccine could protect against cancer caused by organ transplants

Mice use minimised by mini-liver break through

42 thousand red-listed turtles taken per year

Animal research and Asian vulture conservation

Uar complaint against animal aid upheld by the advertising standards authority.

Government announces delivery plan for reduction of animals in research

You want fish? Police your reserves

Herceptin - first monoclonal antibody treatment for cancer

Bat populations rise

by Theodore Roethke

BBC films inside Oxford Animal Lab

Two new films on Macaque research from the MRC

What makes us human?

Poll shows more Italians accept animal research

Science Action Network

Otter project - monitoring pollution

Avoiding turtle by-catch in the Mediterranean

The Big Animal Research Debate: Day 4

We need to stick with research through the ups and the downs

‘Turning point’ in Alzheimer’s treatment

Rothman, Schekman and Südhof - 2013 Nobel Prize winners in Physiology or Medicine

Rejection reduced by animal research

Nobel scientists experimenting on themselves

The Nobel Prize winners who experimented on themselves

Brain cancer research suggests new treatments

Pro-Test Italia demonstrate in Rome

2013 Nobel Prize Predictions

Down syndrome symptoms reduced in mice with single injection

Lasker award given to neurotransmitter researchers

New EU guide to alternatives to animal testing

3,000 Italian Researchers say no to law limiting animal research

Fire salamanders wiped out by newly found fungus

Basel declaration animal research awards

Free iBook: Primates in Medical Research now available

Neuron maps unveiled for mouse and fly

New treatment allows stronger radiotherapy

New mouse model for hepatitis C research

World Hepatitis Day

A new way to prevent transplant rejection

Animal research statistics for Great Britain, 2012

Third Basel Declaration Society Conference

Understanding Animal Research’s 2013 AGM

Jumping species: how good intentions spread diseases

The eternal search for ever-lasting life

Hard on the outside, soft on the inside, and just the right temperature...

Inside the Dementia Lab

Symposium on the 3Rs

World Blood Donor Day

Pro-Test Italia demonstrate the value of animal research

On Saturday 1st June 2013, Pro-Test Italia held a rally in support of the important role that animals play in biomedical research.

Pro-Test Italia march on Saturday

The Pro-Test Italia rally will culminate in the delivery of a petition signed by over 5000 people calling for solidarity with the researchers affected by the attack.

How to distort 0.004% of the statistics

A new statistic is doing the rounds in the animal rights camps.

Dementia Awareness Week: 19 – 25 May

This year’s Dementia Awareness Week is themed around talking, with the message that “Worrying changes nothing.

Animal research news round up 10/05

The Daily Mail, in an earnest attempt to justify their drinking habits, reported that phenolic acid found in champagne dramatically improved the memory test performance of rats.

Brain Injury Week 13th - 19th May 2013

This year's Action for Brain Injury Week (ABI Week) will see the launch of a positive campaign aimed at GPs to assist them with diagnosing and appropriately signposting patients and carers affected by the often hidden aspects of brain injury.

New animal research briefing for Deaf Awareness Week

UAR has produced a new briefing sheet on deafness and hearing loss as a contribution to Deaf Awareness Week (6th May - 12th May 2013).

Prize for technique that reduces number of animals in spinal injury research

A scientist from the University of Glasgow has been awarded a 3Rs Prize for developing a cell-based technique that models severed nerves usually studied in animals.

Newly identified naturally occurring hormone could treat diabetes

Experiments in mice have identified a hormone that could stop and even reverse the onset of diabetes.

Animal research news round up 03/05

The possibility of eternal youth is guaranteed to get coverage and all the broadsheets covered this Nature story this week.

Pint of Science

World-leading scientists will be sharing their knowledge and latest discoveries in pubs across London, Oxford and Cambridge from Tuesday 14th - Thursday 16th May.

Novo Nordisk wins Corporate Responsibility award

The annual Corporate Responsibility Reporting Awards were handed out at the Royal Society earlier this week.

Scientists ask for solidarity

A recent break in at the University of Milan by animal rights extremists has put the university’s research into psychiatric disorders back several years.

World Malaria Day

This World Malaria Day, April 25th, we need to remember the global significance of this life-threatening disease.

Animal research news round up 26/04

Hilary Koprowski, the scientist who developed the first live-virus polio vaccine, has died at the age of 96.

Two thirds of the British public are unaware animal cosmetic testing is illegal in UK

Almost two thirds of British people (63%) do not know that is it illegal to test finished cosmetic products on animals in the UK, according to a recent ComRes survey.

Animal research is leading a revolution in organ transplants, again

Around the turn of the 20th Century, two surgeons named Emerich Ullman and Alexis Carrel placed the kidney of goat into a dog.

Animal rights extremists wreck Milan laboratory

An animal facility at the University of Milan, Italy, was occupied on Saturday 20 April by Fermare Green Hill.

Animal research news round up

We have several stories which very clearly illustrate the potential medical benefits of research this week.

News round up

Robert Edwards, the Nobel Prize winning developer of in vitro fertilisation, has died at the age of 87.

We have a lot of things to thank animals for; space travel and cloning are just two of them

Dolly is probably the most famous animal ever to take part in a scientific experiment.

Broken memories

Researchers studying mice have discovered that brain cells may break their own DNA to form new memories.

New malaria medicine developed in mice

An experimental compound has proved highly effective at preventing malaria in laboratory tests using mice.

UAR at The Big Bang Fair 2013

The UAR Education Team had a fantastic time at The Big Bang Fair at ExCel in London which ran from the 14th -17th March this year.

What Difference Does Animal Research Make

New foot-and-mouth vaccine

Foot-and-mouth disease (Aphthae epizooticae) is an infectious and sometimes fatal viral disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals, including domestic and wild bovids such as cattle and sheep.

Gene therapy targets 'cancer gene'

Gene therapy using a mutant form of a gene known to be involved in many of the most common cancers can destroy tumours in mice without any major side effects.

Mice experiments help scientists improve cancer vaccines

An additive used in anti-cancer vaccines is stopping them working properly, research in mice suggests.

Achilles’ heel identified for rare cancer

Research using genetically modified mice has given scientists a unique insight into the molecular cause of an incurable human cancer.

UAR sets up a new website: AnimalRightsExtremism.info

Animal rights activists have created an exaggerated impression of their movement by their use of social and other media channels.

Cancer cells starved with gold

Artificial retina developed through animal research lets blind people see again

Research in mice suggests gut bacteria influence blood pressure

Bone “scaffold” helps new bones grow from stem cells

Diabetes cured in dog using gene therapy

This House Does Not Believe Animal Research is a Moral Hazard

1960's RSV vaccine side-effect now explained

Nine out of ten statistics are taken out of context

Cancers 'glow' in mice

Crustaceans shown to feel pain

New investment in the 3Rs

Home Office guidance to Animals Scientific Procedures Act

The Beauty in the Beast

We are moving on Jan 15 to Hodgkin Huxley House

Vaccine against leishmaniasis trialled in golden hamsters

Video: Marmosets and research into Parkinson’s Disease

March of the cyborgs

Artificial 'jellyfish' moved by heart cells

Volunteer to be a school speaker

Record amount awarded for research to reduce animal experiments

First IVF baby celebrates 34th birthday

Cats make the headlines

Damaged proteins block immune cell transport

Nanoparticles reduce prostate tumours in mice

Child skin-cancer gene identified

Opossum models liver disease

Acidic airways found in cystic fibrosis linked to bacterial infection

NAVA leader pleads guilty in extremism trial

Huntington’s disease mutation in mice corrected using stem cells

New-found hormone protects against type 2 diabetes

Animal research statistics for Great Britain, 2011

Parkinson disease protein spreads between neurons

Diabetes medicine improves memory in mice

Animal activists arrested in UK and Holland

Stem cell therapy for Type 1 diabetes a step closer

Schools poster - competition winner announced

Myeloid leukaemia slowed in mice

Scientists block pathological aggression in mice

Cancer risk increased by bacterial infection

How the foetus avoids rejection

Stem cells repair lungs in sheep

Skin cells turned into heart cells

Mice show link between psoriasis and heart disease

Welcome to our new look

Type 1 diabetes reversed in mice

Chemical treats multiple sclerosis

Paralysed patients control robotic arm by thought alone

European Directive 2010/63/EU: UK government responds

Brain cell death switched off

Mutations allow bird flu to spread between people

Animal research crucial for future of the NHS

NEW! Classroom poster

Gene therapy makes beating heart cells

Blind mice see again after eye cell transplant

New protein link to spinal muscular atrophy

Pain makes the heart grow stronger

Scientists working with both mice and people have found that painkillers could actually hinder the body’s recovery after a heart attack.

Gene therapy for sickle cell

Predictive power of the parallel approach

Secret of stroke recovery?

Bone marrow transplant reverses Rett

Fat cells reprogrammed to burn energy

Scientists 'read' mouse brains

The making of 'A day in the life of an animal technologist'

Vitamin E causes weak bones in mice

Moving animals - are we at a tipping point?

Secret to growing new nerves

Increasing egg supply to treat infertility?

Stem cells win prizes

Science website launches

Co-ordination restored in Huntington’s mice

Cancer treatment clears Alzheimer’s damage

Case studies showcase animal research

Goldilocks gene for personalised TB treatment

Drug for leishmaniasis

Skin cells to nerve cells

Nearly £1 million towards replacing cancer tests

Scientists have been awarded nearly £1 million to develop new test methods that should substantially reduce the numbers of animals used for testing chemicals which may cause cancer.

Gene therapy treats blindness in dogs

A common form of blindness has been successfully treated in dogs using gene therapy.

Nanoparticles boost vaccines

Scientists have developed nanoparticles that boost the effectiveness of vaccines in mice by mimicking part of the natural immune response.

Beagle breeding planning appeal fails

On Thursday 26 January, we learned that Communities Secretary Eric Pickles had agreed with the recommendations of a planning appeal inspector and dismissed the planning appeal by B&K animal breeders in East Yorkshire.

Rats jump aboard

On the principal that you can’t really understand something until you have tried it yourself, the UAR education team has been encouraging young people up and down the country...

Stem cells and heart repair

Continuing our video series on the patient benefits of animal research, a patient interviews a scientist on how stem cells, based on animal research, may be used to repair hearts.

Schizophrenia and sleeping problems linked?

Recent findings that a gene associated with schizophrenia also causes abnormal sleep patterns in mice have led scientists to ponder whether the mental illness and sleep disturbance could be genetically linked.

Worm holes and lung damage

New research suggests that understanding provided by parasitic worms could be used to treat serious lung injury caused by infections.

Omega-3 fatty acids protect against nerve damage

Scientists have found that omega-3 fatty acids can help speed up recovery from nerve damage.

Sex virus blamed for cancer rise

One dog, 90 years, millions saved

Before January 1922, a diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes was in effect a death sentence; many died of starvation.

Cell walls can bock infections

Scientists have developed a new strategy for fighting infectious diseases.

Rare eye cancer pathway uncovered

Scientists have uncovered the secret behind the rapid progression of retinoblastoma, a rare type of childhood eye cancer.

Young blood treats old mice with MS

By transplanting cells from the blood of young mice, scientists have successfully stimulated stem cells to repair the damaged nerve tissue of old mice with multiple sclerosis.

HIV vaccine boost

Scientists have created a vaccine that protects rhesus monkeys from infection by the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), a relative of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Gene could hold key to treating deafness

Scientists have identified a gene that, when deleted, causes deafness in mice.

Mapping memories

Intricate experiments using mice have allowed scientists to visualise the formation of new brain circuits that form after birth.

Cancer treatment targets tumour growth protein

A chemical tested in mice, cell cultures and human biopsies has proved highly effective in preventing the growth of tumours.

Gene confers resistance to Marek’s disease

Scientists have identified a gene that appears to make chickens immune to the deadly Marek's virus - responsible for millions of deaths in chickens each year.

Tuning the immune system reverses MS

Scientists have found a way to reverse the devastating effects of multiple sclerosis (MS) in mice.

Weight loss treatment works in obese monkeys

Researchers have shown that a new compound can significantly reduce the weight of monkeys by destroying blood vessels that feed fatty tissue.

Vaccine protects mice against deadly Ebola virus

Scientists have developed a vaccine which protects mice from the Ebola virus and, unlike current vaccines, can be stored for long periods of time.

Evidence-based policy

The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Home Department, Lynne Featherstone, advanced an animal research policy based on evidence in a Commons debate on Wednesday 7 December.

World AIDS Day

It's 30 years since the first cases of HIV infection. During this time, says the website HIVaware, we've seen rapid change.

#WW award for Overlooking the Importance of Animal Research

We liked a piece in the Huffington Post by Kirk Leech. Overlooking the Importance of Animal Research in the UK politics section of the Huffington Post...

GM cells cure anaemia in mice

Mice have been cured of anaemia by an injection of genetically engineered cells that, when injected underneath the skin, formed blood vessels that secreted a hormone called erythropoietin.

Information tribunal rules for both sides

As anyone who reads it will see, a recent (11 November) Freedom of Information ruling falls some way short of the 'landmark decision' claimed by BUAV.

Naked mole rat DNA exposes its age-defying secrets

A team of scientists have begun to unravel the secrets underlying the long life enjoyed by naked mole rats.

Blood protein from rice treats rats

A human blood protein has been produced using genetically modified rice and used to treat liver disease in rats.

Release of leading extremists may inspire new attacks on animal research

Leading animal rights extremists Greg and Natasha Avery were released from prison this week.

Why don't woodpeckers get headaches?

How do woodpeckers avoid injury to their brain as their beak hits a tree at seven metres per second and up to 100 times per minute?

Blocking brain cancer in mice

An interaction between two proteins has been found to be essential for the development of the most common form of brain cancer.

#WW award for Of Mice and Medicine

We award Paul Vallely of the Independent newspaper for his excellent article - Of Mice and Medicine.

Modified protein treats haemophilia in mice

Scientists have engineered a human clotting factor into a safe and effective treatment that cured haemophilia in mice.

Chemotherapy delivered through the nipple

Tests in both rats and patients have shown that chemotherapy delivered through the milk ducts of the nipple is more effective and leads to fewer side-effects than intravenous drug delivery.

Lords again affirm support for animal research

Several peers confirmed their belief in the need for animal research in biomedical research, during a debate in the House of Lords yesterday (24 October 2011).

Of mice and medicine

Subtitled In defence of animal experiments, the Independent published a four-page article in Saturday's Magazine about how animal research is 'transforming human lives'.

New antibody protects monkeys from deadly Hendra virus

Squamous cell skin carcinoma is the second most common skin cancer after melanomas, affecting approximately 10,000 people in the UK each year.

Skin tumour reduced in mice

Enzyme linked to miscarriages and infertility

Studies of patient tissue and experiments using mice have linked a specific enzyme to both infertility and miscarriage.

Sickle-cell anaemia treated in mice

Researchers have shown that they can treat sickle-cell anaemia in mice by switching on a haemoglobin gene usually only active before birth.

#WW award for Zebrafish article in Wellcome News

The article by Emma James in the latest Wellcome News looks into why zebra fish have become so important in genetics research.

Diabetes 'cured' with brain stem cells

Stem cells taken from a rat's brain using a simple procedure have been made to produce insulin and used to cure diabetes in the same rat.

Of mice and men - new video

Watch the 'Of Mice and Men' videos to see how GM mice are used to study human disease.

Less is more for common cancer treatment

A common cancer treatment has been shown to be more effective and less toxic when administered at more frequent, lower doses.

Lords affirm support for animal research

Members of the House of Lords on Tuesday affirmed their support for 'proper and appropriate' use of animals in medical research.

#WW award for NC3Rs review

Our Wedneday Winner today is the NC3Rs for producing a really clear, accessible and comprehensive review of the work it funds.

Cancer inducing protein protects against diabetes

Scientists have uncovered an intriguing signalling pathway linking cancer and diabetes.

The research they tried to stop

Three animal rights extremists who were imprisoned for their role in the 'Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs' campaign – Jon Ablewhite, John Smith and Kerry Whitburn – have been released from prison.

Anti-viral medicine slows brain tumour growth

Scientists have found that the growth of Medulloblastoma brain tumour cells in mice can be significantly slowed using existing anti-viral medicines.

Mouse stem cells guided to become neuron-protecting cells

Scientists have successfully guided mouse stem cells to become specialised cells that build a protective coat around neurons.

How the brain communicates with the immune system

Experiments on mice have identified the missing link that allows the nervous and immune systems to communicate.

Neuron’s self-defence against dementia

Scientists have identified a signalling pathway used by neurons to protect against the cause of frontotemporal dementia, the second most common form of early-onset dementia after Alzheimer's disease.

Treating 'Alzheimer's disease' in mice

Scientists working with mice have identified a molecule that appears to cause the dementia suffered by Alzheimer's patients.

UK Bioscience Coalition position on the European Directive on animal research

Animal research is vitally important in science and medicine.

Replacing animals with nerves on a chip

A team of scientists have developed a way of guiding nerve cells to set up complicated networks that mimic the ones found in the brain.

#WW award for a letter from Parkinson's UK

Animal Aid is running a campaign against medical charities because some of their funded work involves animals.

'Glow in the dark' cats aids HIV research

Scientists inserted two genes into cats: the first is taken from macaque monkeys and helps the cat resist the feline form of Aids; the second is a fluorescent gene from jellyfish that helps the researchers literally see where the added anti-aids gene is active.

Colchicine from Crocus kills cancer

A modified version of a chemical found in the Autumn crocus has shown exceptional promise as a tumour-killing agent in mice and will soon begin clinical trials in humans.

Gene deletion blocks pain

Scientists have identified the gene that allows the transmission of chronic pain.

Safer treatment for sleeping sickness

Scientists have trialled a safer way of treating sleeping sickness in mice by modifying an existing medicine.

Modified bacterium protects against TB

Mice infected with a genetically modified relative of the tuberculosis bacterium became immune to tuberculosis, a new study has shown.

Computer model predicts effect of medicines on heart

Scientists have developed a computer model that predicts the effect of anti-arrhythmic medicines on the heart.

Stem cell treatment for stroke trial

A treatment developed in rats and mice has been shown to be safe in the first ever human trial of stem cell treatment for stroke victims.

Gene therapy hope for Menkes Disease

Studies in GM mice have shown that a combination of gene therapy and copper injections could be effective in treating Menkes Disease, a lethal and progressive disease that mainly affects young boys.

Gene mapping opens new insights into the brain

A map of gene activity has been created that scientists hope will shed new light on the causes of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

Breakthrough against deadly Ebola virus

Scientists have uncovered the Achilles heel of the deadly Ebola virus; the breakthrough could lead to the first treatment for the tropical disease within a decade.

Obese mice fed artifical enzyme live longer

A new artificial enzyme(SRT1720) has been found to increase the lifespan of obese mice.

Gene therapy treats Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Modified stem cells have been used to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) in mice by replacing the faulty gene that causes the disease with a normal version of the gene.

Ear cells could be used in facial reconstruction

Tissue grown from stem cells taken from patients' ears could be used in facial reconstructions, tests in mice have shown.

Why fatty diet can lead to type 2 diabetes

Rates of diabetes have doubled in the last 30 years and doctors say rising levels of obesity are the main contributing factor.

#ww Buffering brains against stress

The hippocampus creates new neurones throughout our lives - so what happens if you bring "the hippocampus's production line to a screeching halt?"

Artificial protein could be 'universal' anti-viral

Antibiotics such as penicillin can be used to treat all sorts of bacterial infections, but doctors have few options when it comes to viral infections.

Some facts about Parkinson's and Alzheimer's research

The animal rights group Animal Aid launched an ill-informed, illogical and ill-conceived campaign against medical research charities a few weeks ago.

Mouse births from stem cell sperm

In the UK around 1 in 10 men are infertile, often because of low sperm counts.

Allergy testing with human cells

Allergic reactions to everyday chemicals are common causing eczema in millions of people, and tests on animals have been important in testing new chemicals for skin sensitisation.

Starving kidney cancer in mice

Researchers have identified a new chemical (STF-31) that selectively kills kidney cancer cells by blocking their glucose supply.

Cancer treatment for 'schizophrenic' mice

Schizophrenia is one of the most common serious mental health conditions in the UK, affecting 1 in 2000 people at some time in their lives.

Shining a light on ataxia

When people stagger after drinking too much ethanol has caused reversible ataxia – a loss of muscular co-ordination.

#ww Can scientists follow Laura’s lead?

Mark Henderson’s Science Matters column in today's Times Eureka gets our #ww Wednesday Winner award for communication about animal research (OK, it’s not Wednesday, but this column is a deserving winner).

Broken sleep disrupts memory

Research on mice has shown that uninterrupted sleep is vital for memory consolidation.

Coalition pledge on household product testing

This month’s awaited pledge by the coalition government to end household product testing on animals has been welcomed by the UK research community.

#ww award for the Ark Hive

Dr. Paul Foster, a Lecturer in Molecular Endocrinology at the University of Birmingham, is an experienced cancer researcher and pharmacologist with a strong interest in understanding how animals help advance medical research.

UK research using monkeys 'outstanding'

A report published today, called Review of research using non-human primates, recommends that scientific research on monkeys should continue in the UK, subject to rigorous safeguards.

I'm a scientist: get me in there!

For two weeks this June I took part in the 'I'm a scientist...get me out of here 2011' competition at the Wellcome Trust.

Animals containing human material

What are 'animals containing human material' (ACHM) and why the sudden interest in them?

Helping the hunt for disease genes

A few weeks ago it was announced that researchers have created genome-wide, high-resolution genetic maps of 100 inbred mouse strains.

Mice with human livers

To better study the breakdown and toxicity of new medicines in a human liver, scientists have created what has been named a ‘humanised mouse'.

Meningitis B vaccine one step closer

A study using mice has led scientists one step closer to developing a vaccine against the most common cause of bacterial meningitis, Meningococcus B.

Committing to the three Rs

The UK Home Office this morning agreed arrangements to deliver two Coalition commitments relating to the use of animals in scientific research

Spine repair allows rats to breathe again

Injuries that damage the spinal cord at the top of the neck can damage the nerve connections between the respiratory centre in the brain and the diaphragm muscles that we need to breathe normally.

#ww Animal models: Inside the minds of mice and men

Monya Baker has given us a good and useful read. Her article in Nature provides many examples of animal models for human conditions and gives a clear appraisal of their value.

Animal research statistics for Great Britain, 2010

Brain tumour growth slowed

Brain cancers caused by malignant gliomas account for around 3,000 deaths in the UK each year.

Polar bears and brown bears interbred

A genetic study of living and the ancient remains of polar and brown bears has revealed that they interbred during the last ice age and that modern polar bears are descended on the female side from brown bears that lived in Ireland.

Protein linked to cancer

Vaccine against Streptococcus pneumonia

Salmonella poisoning typically causes diarrhoea.

Reversing Rett Syndrome in mice

New research using mouse models has shown that glial cells, which protect and support neurons in the brain, play a central role in preventing the severe symptoms of Rett Syndrome.

But can they suffer?

'The question is not can they reason nor can they talk, but rather can they suffer?' Jeremy Bentham

Millions owe their lives to animal research

Leading research organisations have responded to misleading claims made by an antivivisection group in its recent letter to the Lancet.

Cheap treatment for sleeping sickness

Researchers are preparing for clinical trials of the first inexpensive oral treatment for Trypanosomiasis, the parasitic disease commonly known as sleeping sickness that is transmitted to humans by the tsetse fly.

Gene repair treats haemophilia

About one in 30,000 boys are born with a defective gene that causes haemophilia B.

SchoolZone Goes Live

The UAR SchoolZone is a brand new part of our site dedicated to school age students and their teachers.

Animal research and diabetes

In this film we hear from Chloe, who has diabetes, and Dr Aileen King, who researches into diabetes.

#WW award for ... Animal research is helping us beat cancer

'Thanks to decades of research, survival from cancer has doubled in the last 40 years, giving thousands of people more time with their loved ones.

Vaccine shrinks prostate tumours in mice

A vaccine containing a broad spectrum of tumour antigens delivered in a virus vector successfully treated 8 out of 10 mice with prostate cancer.

Why do charities fund animal research?

The animal rights group Animal Aid has launched a campaign against medical research charities who fund animal research.

Chemical in apple peel strengthens muscle

An apple a day really does keep the doctor away according to a new study in mice.

New regulations will boost good science, promote animal welfare

New animal research regulations from Europe will enhance the welfare of animals, facilitate modern science and cut through excessive red tape.

CJD research potential for Alzheimer’s

Researchers working on treatments for the brain disorder Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) may have found a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.

Heart repair initiated in mice

Human hearts cannot repair themselves after a heart attack damages heart muscle.

New mouse model for hepatitis C

The hepatitis C virus infects in the region of 170 million people around the world and creates an increased risk of cirrhosis, liver failure and cancer.

UAR in Mauritius

Macaques, like humans, are not indigenous to the island of Mauritius, isolated as it is in the Indian ocean.

Protein suppression stops leukaemia growth in mice

Leukaemia causing stem cells have been eliminated in mice by suppressing two proteins.

‘Trojan Horse’ brain cancer treatment increases lifespan

A novel ‘Trojan horse' method of treating brain cancer has increased the survival time of mice by one half.

BBC interviews UAR about beagle breeding plans

Animal rights protestors are targeting the beagle breeding company B&K Universal's plans for modernisation of their site in Grimston.

Targeting genes to stop breast tumours

Some breast cancers do not respond to currently available chemotherapy.

Rodent Respect

This months Wednesday Winner website (#WW) is Rodent Respect. The site was created for scientists who work with rodents, especially students.

Do-it-yourself animal research

It is often said that the only way to really learn anything is to do it yourself.

Armadillos infect humans with leprosy

Armadillos can infect humans with leprosy, according to a new study comparing the disease in US patients and armadillos.

Skin cancer protein identified in mice

Scientists have identified a protein that suppresses skin cancer in mice.

A history of Beecham’s

The story of Thomas Beecham, founder of the company that went on to become part of Glaxo SmithKline, is quite extraordinary.

Mouse model of human immune system validated

A mouse model of the human immune system has been validated by replicating the results of a recent human HIV clinical trial.

Prostate tumours reduced in mice

Prostate tumours have been in reduced in mice using a medicine originally designed to treat obesity.

Nine cell types to re-grow a fin

Understanding regeneration in model organisms gives hope that it may one day be possible for amputees to regrow limbs, or for heart attack patients to regrow healthy heart muscle.

Vulture decline slows

The ban on a veterinary medicine which caused an unprecedented decline in Asian vulture populations has shown the first signs of progress.

#WW - Untangling the brain

Our brains are a dense tangle of billions of nerve cells connected together at synapses. Knowing how everything links up is key to understanding how the brain works – but it's a huge challenge.

Vaccine protects monkeys against SIV

A vaccine has been developed that protects monkeys from Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV), the monkey equivalent of HIV.

Creation of new Animal Welfare Centre in Scotland

The Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) is to coordinate a major, new, EU funded, research project to create a Centre of Excellence in Animal Welfare Science.

Number of nerve stem cells declines with age

A new study may explain why our brains produce fewer new neurons with age.

Antidepressants stimulate nerve cell growth

Stress can cause depressive illness in humans and has visible effects on mice such as failure to groom and weight loss.

Possible treatment for muscular dystrophy

About 100 boys are born with muscular dystrophies every year in the UK.

Technique mass produces neural stem cells

Stem cells hold the promise of cures for injuries such as spinal cord damage and diseases such as Parkinson's but producing large quantities of cells for experiments and clinical trials is proving very difficult.

How exercise protects the heart

Work with mice has shown that the elevated levels of nitric oxide produced during exercise protect the heart from injury during a heart attack.

European Chemical Agency call for animal test data

Chemical safety in Europe is regulated in part by REACH*.

#WW Wednesday Web award - Smallpox Through Time

In Elizabethan times smallpox killed more people than TB, leprosy, plague and syphilis combined.

How TB destroys lungs

GM mice have helped identify a key enzyme responsible for destroying lung tissue in tuberculosis (TB).

UAR appoints Interim CEO

The UAR Council is delighted to announce that, following a rigorous selection process, we have recruited David Pruce as Interim Chief Executive to ensure that our important work continues and thrives.

Aspirin may reduce effects of Prozac

Aspirin and other anti-inflammatory medicines taken for pain relief may reduce the effectiveness of antidepressants such as Prozac.

New hope for MS

Unlocking a key messenger protein in the body’s defences could be a first step to new treatments for multiple sclerosis (MS) and other autoimmune diseases, suggest studies in mice with a form of the disease.

Are wild animals happier?

Are wild animals happier? That was the question posed by Christie Wilcox for a guest blog in Scientific American.

Gene linked to lung cancer spread

Scientists have identified a genetic change that makes lung tumours more likely to spread to other parts of the body.

Growing new blood vessels in mice

Heart attacks and strokes could be prevented using a new method of blood vessel regeneration, according to research on mice.

Virtual rats' whiskers

A new computer model of rats' whiskers is helping scientists understand how rats process the sense of touch.

Genes temporarily turned-off

Scientists have created a new method to temporarily turn off the function of genes in mice.

Memory loss linked to stress

Scientists have discovered how stress contributes to memory loss in old rats.

Monkey malaria infecting humans

UK public opinion largely positive

A Question of Care

From our archive - this video about the care of laboratory animals was produced by the Biomedical Research Trust in 2003.

Retina grown in the lab

Mouse retinas have been grown in the lab using embryonic stem cells.

New mechanism links type-2 diabetes to obesity

Scientists have discovered a mechanism linking type-2 diabetes to obesity.

Stem cells for skin repair

New treatments for chronic wounds could be developed following the discovery of stem cells that repair damaged skin tissue.

Fish for Science is the first Wednesday Winner

We've awarded our first Wednesday award to The MRC Centre for Developmental and Biomedical Genetics for their Fish for Science website.

Genes for acute myeloid leukaemia

Scientists have identified three types of gene mutation that lead to acute myeloid leukaemia.

New skin cancer gene, new treatment

The discovery of a gene linked to skin cancer in zebrafish could lead to new treatments for the disease.

Be a Wednesday Winner #WW

We are starting our very own webby awards, which we are calling Wednesday Winners (#WW).

The teenager who took a stand against animal rights protesters

European chemicals industry to develop non-animal toxicity tests

The European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) has launched a £450,000 research project into finding non-animal methods of toxicity testing.

Multiple sclerosis reversed in mice

The process of nerve cell degeneration in multiple sclerosis (MS) can be reversed, according to new research in mice.

Protein linked to autism in mice

Research on GM mice has found how mutations in a single protein can lead to autism.

Jamie’s Dream School – animal madness?

In his science lessons for Jamie’s Dream School on Channel 4, Lord Winston showed the dramatic (in more ways than one!) impact that using animals can have in science lessons.

Optimising GM mouse research

'The MRC is absolutely committed to basic research and we understand the value of mouse genetics', said Professor Sir John Savill, CEO of the Medical Research Council today, announcing a multi-million pound investment in mouse genetics.

GM pig gets cystic fibrosis

A GM pig that gets cystic fibrosis is helping scientists understand the causes of the disease.

Mice sperm grown in the lab

Treatments for infertility in men could come from success in growing mouse sperm.

UAR makes a Big Bang

UAR teamed up with the Y Touring Company this month for a series of workshops about the use of animals in research at this year's Big Bang Science Fair held at London's Excel Centre.

RatCAP brain scanner

Scientists have developed a mini brain-scanner that allows them to study brain function and behaviour simultaneously in rats.

Rousing research

Did you know that it is exactly 100 years since a little-known researcher called Francis Peyton Rous in New York discovered that chickens could get cancer from viruses? We didn’t think so.

Mouse mimics another childhood brain cancer

Scientists have created a mouse model of the most common type of paediatric brain cancer.

Poor diet in pregnancy linked to diabetes in offspring

Poor diet during pregnancy could raise the risk of offspring developing diabetes, according to new research in rats.

Self-doubting monkeys

New research suggests macaques experience self-doubt and uncertainty when making decisions.

Tiny sensors monitor heart attacks

The severity of a heart attack can be determined using tiny implanted sensors, according to new research on mice. Similar sensors could be used to monitor people at high risk of heart attack.

Black-footed kittens born through IVF

IVF has helped millions of couples achieve pregnancy, and not only in humans: it was with IVF that scientists recently produced these amazingly cute kittens.

Heart regeneration in newborn mice

Newborn mice can regenerate their own heart tissue following heart damage.

Mouse mimics childhood brain cancer

Scientists have created the first mouse model of a deadly form of childhood brain cancer.

Exercise reduces ageing in GM mice

Regular endurance exercise reduces the effects of ageing, according to new research on mice.

Artificial blood vessel success in animals

Artificial blood vessels for use in heart bypass surgery have been successfully tested in baboons and dogs.

New understanding of 'suspended animation'

Research on bears has extended our understanding of large mammal hibernation.

Enzyme reduces cancer spread

The spread of cancer to other organs has been reduced in mice by blocking an enzyme.

European medical science group states position on new law

The medical science group within the European Science Forum (ESF-EMRC) has produced a position paper on the new Directive on the Protection of Animals used for Scientific Procedures.

Spinal cord damage bridged in rats

Artificial ‘scaffolding' has been used to bridge spinal cord injuries in rats.

Type 1 diabetes treated in mice

Type 1 diabetes has been treated in GM mice using antibodies.

Wounds trigger tumours

Certain types of cancer could be triggered by simple wounds, according to new research on mice.

What's this?

Why have we got a QR code on our site?

Kidney regenerator cell identified

Zebrafish are renowned in the science community for their ability to repair damage to heart muscle.

Watch and read - Where do medicines come from?

We've produced a new leaflet and accompanying video that is being distributed to GP waiting rooms throughout the UK for the next six months.

Enzyme linked to blindness

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) has been linked to the lack of a protective enzyme in the retina.

Glowing nerve cells

Scientists have developed a way to make nerves glow in mice.

HIV-like virus cured in mice

Scientists have used a hormone to completely remove a HIV like virus from mice.

Protein predicts cancer spread

Scientists have identified a protein that tumours make when they are likely to spread.

Cancer medicine could treat spinal injury

The cancer medicine Taxol has been used to treat spinal injury in rats.

Gut bacteria affect brain development

Bacteria in the gut acquired early in life could affect future brain development and behaviour, according to new research on mice.

Hormone improves memory in rats

A hormone has been found that boosts the memory of an unpleasant experience in rats.

Lack of omega-3 linked to mood disorders

Mice fed a diet lacking in the fatty acid omega-3 are more susceptible to mood disorders, according to new research.

Tiny camera reveals brain changes in real time

An innovative new instrument has been developed that enables scientists to observe changes deep inside the brains of animals.

Caffeine could cure hangover headaches

Caffeine and painkillers could be the most effective cure for a hangover headache, suggests new research on rats.

Fighting cancer with cancer

An innovative new approach to fighting cancer has reduced tumour size in mice.

New video - mice as a model for Alzheimer's disease

Mice can be used to mimic Alzheimer's disease in humans.

RNA based medicine for HIV

A potential RNA based treatment for HIV is showing positive results in tests on mice.

UK scientist wins prize for improving animal welfare

Each year the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) awards a prize for innovative research which has an impact on the use of animals in life sciences.

UAR CEO moves to SGM

Dr Simon Festing, the Chief Executive of Understanding Animal Research for a little over six years, is leaving the organisation to take up the post of CEO of the Society for General Microbiology (SGM).

Scientists closer to MRSA vaccine

Scientists are closer to developing a vaccine against the superbug MRSA.

MicroRNA combats prostate cancer

Small strands of RNA, called microRNA, inhibit prostate cancer stem cells in mice.

Zebrafish grow abnormally in microgravity

Zebrafish raised in microgravity, replicating the conditions of space, develop skull defects.

GM chickens prevent transmission of bird flu

Bird flu epidemics could be prevented by GM chickens that stop the spread of flu to other birds.

Artificial intestine reduces animal tests

An artificial human digestive system is replacing the use of animals in some tests to see how medicines are absorbed, The Times reported last week.

Stem cells could end blood platelet shortage

Blood platelets produced from embryonic stem cells have been used to repair damaged tissues in mice.

Vaccine induces cocaine immunity in mice

Cocaine immunity has been induced in mice using an altered version of the common cold virus.

Genetic modification strengthens hearts

Mice have been genetically modified to grow stronger hearts.

GM rats are the new GM mice

Mice are the archetypal laboratory animal.

Horse genital cancer virus identified

Scientists have discovered a virus linked to genital cancer in horses.

Mechanism behind autism uncovered

Nerve cells that are unable to communicate effectively may be responsible for autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), according to new research on mice.

Rats sniff out tuberculosis

Gambian pouched rats are being used by scientists to sniff out tuberculosis in mucus samples.

Scientists create singing mouse

Scientists have created a mouse that is said to sing like a bird.

Zebrafish improve understanding of cancer growth

Experiments on zebrafish larvae have revealed how cancer cells harness the immune system to quicken the spread of the disease.

Art meets science in mouse's brain

Animals have been used to understand the inner workings of the brain since the very beginnings of neuroscience.

How you live now impacts on the children you have yet to conceive

Smoking or drinking while pregnant can damage the unborn child.

World-leading research institute gets go-ahead

We are pleased to report that planning permission was granted last week for a new world-leading biomedical research institute in London.

Alzheimer’s reversed in mice by memory protein

Memory loss has been reversed in Alzheimer's mice by boosting levels of a memory related protein.

Childhood flu may protect against asthma

Exposure to bacteria or viruses as child could reduce your chances of contracting asthma, according to new research on mice.

Stem cells combat muscular dystrophy

A new mouse model of muscular dystrophy has found that stem cells play an important role in this genetic disease.

Freedom of Information - judgement on confidentiality clause at a university

Recently, a tribunal ruled that under the Freedom of Information Act a university can be said to 'hold' project licences (irrespective of how they are actually stored at the university) and that section 24 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA) would not prevent disclosure of information from the project licences.

Animal instinct

Following directly from the Basel Declaration that we covered on Tuesday, an editorial in Nature, 9 December 2010, has urged German science to set up an organisation like Understanding Animal Research to engage the public on the medical benefits of animal research.

Biological clock pigment could help blind people

Light sensing cells (photosensitive ganglion cells) in the eye, which contain the pigment melanopsin, set the body's biological clock.

Dementia confuses memories

Confused memories rather than memory loss may be the cause of 'forgetfulness' in dementia patients, according to new research.

Winter birth may alter biological clock

Being born in winter could make your long-term biological clock tick slower, according to a new study on mice.

Enzyme causes chronic pain

An enzyme responsible for making pain last after nerve injury has been discovered in mice.

Basel Declaration calls for open dialogue

Focus on fluorescent filming

The Scientist reported on its top ten life-science innovations for 2010 this week.

Scientists create 'couch potato' mouse

By removing a protein that muscles use to convert fuel into energy, the researchers produced a mouse with normal body weight but which did not have enough energy to exercise.

How much effort on alternatives? The answer is a lot

Our attention was drawn this week to a relatively new European initiative called AXLR8, a consortium which aims to accelerate progress in developing alternatives to animals for safety testing.

Ageing reversed in mice

Premature ageing can be reversed in mice, hinting at the possibility of anti-aging treatments for humans.

World AIDS Day - 1 December

The HIV & AIDS page on our partner website AnimalResearch.info has been updated to mark World AIDS Day on 1 December.

Infiltration: most allegations unfounded

Understanding Animal Research today (Tuesday 30 November) welcomed a report from the Home Office addressing claims by an animal rights group about animal research and testing at a UK facility in 2009.

New European law marks dawn of a new era

The new European Directive 2010/63/EU on animal experimentation has been finalised.

New video: Why do we use animals in research?

In this short interview with Dr Simon Festing, we hear his response to questions such as: Why is their so much secrecy in animal research?

Changing nerve cells could treat spinal injury

Nerve cells made from a person's own skin suggest a novel way to treat spinal injury.

Compound controls weight and blood sugar

A new compound has been designed that controls weight and blood sugar in mice, raising the prospect of a treatment for sufferers of obesity and diabetes.

Shining a light on depressive disorders

Depression and anxiety affect a significant proportion of the British population, yet the underlying causes behind these medical disorders remain elusive.

How familiarisation breeds contempt

How do we learn to recognise new sensations and distinguish them from those we are already familiar with?

Blood pressure medicine could treat Alzheimer’s

A medicine previously used to treat high blood pressure could now be applied to Alzheimer's disease following tests on GM mice.

‘Fat gene’ causes overeating in mice

A ‘fat gene' has been found to cause overeating in GM mice.

Pregnant mice point to treatment for premature labour

Scientists have found that the onset of labour is controlled by tiny molecules called microRNA.

World Diabetes Day - 14 November

World Diabetes Day (WDD) is the primary global awareness campaign of the diabetes world.

GM mouse immune to cancer

Cancer tumours somehow escape the body's immune system, even when that immune system is primed by a vaccine designed to specifically target the cancer.

Gene mutation increases dementia

The dementia associated with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases is commonly associated with abnormal clumps of a protein (B-synuclein) in the brain.

Mice treated for memory loss

Mice treated with a brain enzyme inhibitor performed better in memory tests than untreated mice.

New government committed to continued crackdown

Following the sentencing of six animal rights extremists on Monday, the new government made clear that it remains committed to countering criminal activity carried out in the name of animal rights.

New video - How much animal research in the UK?

A new video, How much animal research is done in the UK, is now available in our youtube site and in the video section in the resources page on this website.

Deadly rinderpest virus eradicated

The UN has just announced that rinderpest, a virus that used to cause deadly outbreaks in cattle, has been eradicated in the wild.

Congenitally deaf cats have better peripheral vision

When the brain is deprived of input from one sense it often compensates with above normal performance in another sense.

Elixir of life?

Supplementing the diet of healthy middle-aged mice with a mixture of amino-acids - the building blocks of proteins - extended their average lifespan by over one tenth.

Potential treatment for terminal cancer

For the first time, researchers have discovered a therapy that can treat the invariably lethal terminal stages of cancer in animals.

The top 100 scientists in Britain today

The first list of its kind for science, The Eureka 100: The Science List by The Times last week aimed to identify the 100 most important people in British science.

EU-wide animal research statistics, 2008

Mice muscles controlled by light

How do you re-animate paralysed limbs? A new approach being trialled on genetically modified mice uses flashes of light.

No retirement for chimp colony

186 chimps currently housed in unofficial retirement in the Alamogordo Primate Facility in New Mexico are to be re-housed in the Southwest National Primate Research Center.

Mice and monkeys metabolise BPA like humans

New research shows female mice, monkeys and humans appear to metabolise the oestrogen-like chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in similar ways.

Free course on science communication

The National Science Learning Centre in York is offering a fantastic opportunity to improve your science communication skills with a two-day course on engagement with schools and young people on 18-19 October 2010.

EU directive on animal research becomes law

Yesterday the President of the European Parliament, and the Belgian State Secretary (representing the EU countries) put pen to paper and signed the new EU Directive 8869/10 in the use of animals in scientific research.

Retinal cells transplanted into blind mice

Retinal cells, necessary for colour vision, have been successfully transplanted into blind mice.

Loss of gene makes mice smarter

Mice with a disabled RGS14 gene are able to remember objects and learn to navigate mazes better than normal mice.

Tasmanian Devil genome sequenced

The Tasmanian Devil is at risk of extinction in the wild due to a transmissible cancer passed on when one animal bites another.

Drug reverses diabetes nerve damage

Diabetes can cause the death of nerves in the body's extremities, a condition known as diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN).

Single gene regulates motor neurons in the spinal cord

As a normal mammalian body grows, hundreds of motor neurons grow from the spinal cord to the muscles they will control.

Support for research that uses animals containing human material

The public broadly supports research on animals containing human material, according to an Ipsos Mori survey of 1,042 people.

European parliament votes on animal research directive

Today the European Parliament agreed on the final text of the new Directive concerning the use of animals in research.

Anti-clotting medicine attacks lupus

Lupus is a chronic disease where the body's own immune system attacks healthy tissue, causing inflammation, pain and damage in organs, particularly the kidneys.

How fish oils reduce inflammation

The omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA found in oily fish reduce inflammation, which in turn reduces the symptoms of arthritis and reduces the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Rat pancreas grows in mouse

An ultimate goal of regenerative medicine is the generation of organs derived from a patient's stem cells.

Why older women fail to conceive

As women get older the chances of infertility, birth defects and developmental disabilities go up.

Malaria cured in mice

Increasing resistance to anti-malarials, such as those based on Artemisinin, have prompted a need for new treatments.

Resetting body clock in mice

Researchers have successfully used a chemical to reset and restart the natural 24-hour body clock in mice.

New approaches to animal research in schools

Animal research is a favourite topic when teachers are looking for a sure-fire way to get their students interested in the ethics of science, but are schools getting all they can from this complex, sometimes difficult, always fascinating subject?

Monkeys survive lethal Ebola and Marbug

Monkeys treated with a therapy that targets specific viral genes survived deadly Ebola and Marbug infections, a new study reports.

Magnetic medicines treat brain tumours

The barrier between blood vessels and the brain may no longer limit the delivery of medicines to tumours, research on rats shows.

Shellfish toxin testing

The recently published Annual report (2009) of the Animals Scientific Procedures Inspectorate and Division highlights progress towards suitable alternatives to replace the use of mice in the testing for toxins in shellfish.

UGUST 20, 1960: MOSCOW The Soviet Union today launched its second cosmic space ship, the Soviet news agency, Tass, said. The space ship carries animals, including two dogs.

GM rats promise better disease models

Scientists have created a ‘knockout rat' that can be used to model certain diseases in the same way as mice.

Chillis may reduce blood pressure

Capsaicin, a compound found in chilli peppers, has been found to reduce high blood pressure in rats.

Mouse clues to testicular cancer

For the first time scientists will be able to study the development of human testes in mice.

'Home grown' joints

The body's own cells could be used to aid the repair of joints, a pioneering rabbit study has revealed.

Puma may aid tumour growth

A study on mice suggests that cell suicide may encourage tumours to grow instead of destroying them.

Street-smart insulin

Mouse research has revealed a link between bone remodelling, blood sugar and diabetes.

7,000 and counting...

Are you a school science teacher or a GCSE science student? Don't miss out next year - invite a volunteer speaker into your schoo

Animal research statistics for Great Britain, 2009

Ferrets, flu, fish and pharmaceuticals

Grants worth £4 million have just been announced for 13 science projects that aim to minimise the use of laboratory animals and improve their welfare.

A vaccine in the form of a skin patch has proved more effective than a needle in mice.

Down syndrome: two genes crucial

Some of the symptoms relating to Down syndrome have been linked to two genes on chromosome 21, a study on mice has shown.

Protein linked to heart failure

Elevated levels of the protein CIB1 causes enlargement of the heart and subsequent heart failure, according to rodent research.

Primitive cells help blind mice see

Primitive retinal cells, that were previously thought to have no role in image formation, can help blind mice see.

Scientists watch armed immune cells fight cancer

Armed and tagged immune cells can be watched attacking tumours in mice in real time.

A light on Parkinson's

Shining a laser into the brain may ease the symptoms of Parkinson’s, a new study in mice has shown.

A pill that could reverse Alzheimer’s

A new compound that may reverse Alzheimer’s in humans has proven successful in rats and mice.

Physical, social stimulation may starve tumours

Mice with cancer living in enriched environments had smaller tumours, new research has revealed.

Artificial lung an alternative test-bed?

A functional artificial lung on a chip, which mimics the behavour of mouse lungs, has been created.

Cancers linked by faulty gene

Prostate cancer and hereditary breast cancer could be linked by the same gene, research on mice suggests.

New guidelines for reporting research

The National Centre for the Reduction, Refinement, and Replacement of animals in research (NC3Rs) has published a list of guidelines for scientists to follow when reporting the results of research involving animals.

UK Bioscience Sector outlines principles for implementing new Directive

The UK Bioscience Sector has produced a set of principles for the implementation and transposition of the revised EU Directive concerning the use of animals in research.

European public opinion divided

The European Commission has published a survey on the public's opinion of science and technology.

Rats breathe using lab lungs

For the first time rats have been able to breathe using lab grown lungs, a new study reports.

What R you watching? An interactive resource for schools

What R you watching? our latest online interactive educational resource, is now live on the UAR site.

A guide for UK institutions on the new EU Directive

The revised European Directive on animal research (EU8869/10) should be formally 'adopted' in Europe during summer 2010.

Weakened virus makes better vaccine

Rewriting the genetic code of the flu virus has helped to produce a stronger immune response, studies on mice have shown.

Gut bacteria may trigger arthritis

A novel study has uncovered a link between stomach bacteria and the development of rheumatoid arthritis in mice.

Painkiller from sea snail venom

A new painkiller is 100 times more potent than other painkillers, tests on rats have revealed.

Liver grafts grown in the lab

Scientists are a step closer to producing artificial livers after successfully producing a rat liver graft from stem cells.

Plastic antibodies attack bee stings

Immune system molecules made from plastic have functioned successfully in the first tests involving mice.

UK government minister to discuss animal research policy

The Home Office minister with responsibility for animal research, Lynne Featherstone, has agreed to meet the bioscience sector to discuss policy issues.

Canine cancer consortium

Two organisations have joined together to further research into canine cancer.

Extra chromosome protects against cancer

An extra copy of chromosome 21 may boost protection against cancer, research on mice suggests.

Scar tissue process revealed

Research on mice has revealed the process which limits the accumulation of excessive scar tissue.

The ultimate mouse gene study

A global effort announced recently could lead to the ultimate mouse model of human disease. The International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC) aims to explain and share the functions of genes in mice.

The Marks & Spencer bunnies

Some may have seen the full page advert by the retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S), with pictures of rabbits, proclaiming its commitment not to test cosmetics or household products on animals.

The Animal Protection Party and the UK General Election

Just over a month has passed since the 2010 General Elections and the resulting Coalition government is beginning to outline their new policies.

Tremors caused by spinal malfunction

The mechanism which causes severe tremors in people with Parkinson's disease could be controlled through the spine, research on monkeys suggests.

RSPCA and LASA produce new guidelines

Ethical Review Process (ERP) bodies within animal research institutions now have the tools to "develop more efficient and effective processes".

Mystery of lithium action solved

The mechanism by which lithium works to reduce inflammation in the brain has been discovered in a study on rats.

New grants for science teachers

No understanding of how science works is complete without some knowledge of the way we use research animals.

Stem cell hope for deafness

Growing hair cells from stem cells could offer personalised treatments for deafness in the future, scientists studying mice suggest.

Dogs knees hold sporting injury clue

Canine genetics may be able to explain why both humans and dogs develop ligament injuries.

New treatment targets source of asthma

Lowering the production of specific immune cells could prevent asthma attacks, research on mice shows.

Council agrees stricter rules for animal experimentation

The European Council of Ministers has announced agreement on the draft Directive for the Protection of Animals used for Scientific Purposes.

Pigs are a new ideal model for cystic fibrosis

The cause of cystic fibrosis (CF) is becoming clearer after scientists used pigs as models instead of mice.

First trials for stem cell transplant into human spine

Stem cells have been injected into the human spine in a pioneering trial to test the safety of the technique, with the hope of treating a debilitating neurodegenerative condition.

Broccoli chemical kills cancer cells

A chemical in broccoli can kill breast cancer cells and halt tumour growth, accroding to new research on mice.

Hormone injection fights bone death

Bone death, a side effect of steroid medication, could be prevented according to new studies using rabbits.

Chilli-like chemical part of the pain pathway

A group of substances similar to those that give chillies their kick are part of the body's pain mechanism, research on mice has shown.

Study points to new cell culprit for epilepsy

In the past, research on epilepsy has focused on nerve cells, or neurons.

Artificial skin graft success

Artificial human skin developed in the laboratory has been successfully grafted onto mice.

Parties outline their stances on animal research

As the election manifestos from the political parties have been published, we have been having a look to see what they have to say about animal research.

Tribunal rules in favour of UK University in FOI case

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request made nearly three years ago has reached its conclusion, at least for now, with a ruling by the Information Tribunal.

Antifungal drug reduces tumour size

A medicine currently used to treat fungal infections successfully slows tumour growth in mice, according to new research.

Duck gene helps fight flu in chickens

Influenza protection can be transferred across species, say scientists who have identified a key gene in ducks.

Fat-free proteins kill tropical disease bug

Parasites which cause sleeping sickness can be killed by altering the proteins that they are dependent on, studies on mice show.

Agreement on European regulation

The European Parliament and Council representatives have reached an agreement on the final details of the revisions made to Directive 86/609/EEC on animal experimentation.

Enzymes are target for lung cancer treatment

‘Switching off' certain enzymes helps reduce tumours in mice, research has shown.

Synthetic ‘organ' helps stop gout

A plastic capsule implanted under the skin could help regulate metabolic processes, a study on mice has revealed.

RSPCA and GCSE science

The RSPCA's latest foray into schools education is a smart new web resource for GCSE science with a substantial chunk dedicated to exploring the ethics of animal research.

3Rs in front of the camera

If there is one thing that anti-vivisection campaigns are good at, it's providing vivid imagery.

Retrial for animal rights activist?

An animal rights activist who was jailed last year for a firebombing plot against Oxford University in 2006 faces a retrial.

Walnuts to fight prostate cancer

Eating walnuts as part of a balanced diet may reduce the size and growth of prostate tumours, a study on mice has shown.

Glaucoma begins with brain nerve deterioration

Damaged nerves in the brain are the cause of the eye disease glaucoma, rather than damage to the eye itself as was previously thought. This recent finding was the outcome of research using mice.

Faster repair for damaged bones

Stem cells can help repair severely damaged bones quickly, studies on sheep and humans have revealed.

Absent gene heals mice without scarring

Mice lacking the p21 gene can be healed scar free, a study has shown.

Mice vote Green

Simon Jenkins, writing in The Guardian on Friday, asserted that giving animals rights leads to moral chaos. His piece, both amusing and serious, alludes to a recent bit of fun in the pro-hunting magazine, Country Life, which speculates about which political party different animals would vote for.

Tapeworm vaccine helps pigs and humans

A new vaccine successfully blocks tapeworm infection in pigs, helping to break the cycle of infection between pigs and humans.

FoI and lessons for records management

Freedom of Information (FoI) requests have recently been in the news, as many UK Universities have received a request for information from Luke Steele, an animal rights activist based in Yorkshire.

UK public attitudes - not much change

Mouse model develops human liver

Mice could be more useful in the study of hepatitis than previously thought, as research into the possibility of growing a human liver in a mouse has proven successful.

This little piggy

There are some strange animal-related things happening in Europe, but sometimes sense can prevail.

New cause of diabetes revealed

Pig models are becoming increasingly important in medical research into the causes of diseases, and have now shed new light on the causes of diabetes.

TB and leprosy resistance gene link

A new gene variant that increases resistance to diseases such as tuberculosis (TB) and leprosy, has been identified from studies on zebrafish and humans.

Stomach hormone helps reduce liver damage

A hormone found in the stomach reduces inflammation and could ease liver diseases such as cirrhosis, research on rats has revealed.

HIV vaccine ready for human trials

Using a deactivated form of HIV as a vaccine may be the best new treatment for fighting the HIV virus, concluded scientists after studying primate responses to the treatment.

Extraordinary Animals

Tomorrow the film Extraordinary Measures will be released in UK cinemas.

Handy information about animal research

Six new leaflets have been published by Understanding Animal Research, providing an overview of aspects of animal research

Brain development timing crucial for Fragile X

Slower brain development may be the reason some children reject all physical affection, research on mice has shown.

Dialogue is key?

In a febrile atmosphere, a 'panel discussion' took place on a Californian campus earlier this week between antivivisectionists and research advocates

Gene linked to premenstrual disorder

Premenstrual disorder may be linked to a specific gene, research on mice has shown.

Anaesthetic stops pain not movement

A novel anaesthetic that can stop pain yet allows patients to retain movement has been discovered through a study using rats.

House of Lords debate revision of EU regulations

On Wednesday, the House of Lords ‘took note' of a committee report into the revision of the EU Directive on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes

Mystery of Valium addiction revealed

Drugs such as Valium and Xanax could be redesigned after a study on mice has revealed the mechanism which makes them addictive.

Osteoporosis 'pill' success

Taking a special ‘bone pill' could be the key to healing brittle bones, research on mice has shown.

Effects of ageing in mice reversed using blood

Old mice have had their bone marrow rejuvenated after receiving blood supplies from younger mice, a new study has revealed.

Review of research regulations

This month has seen publication of the long-awaited Hampton Implementation Review Report for the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Division and Inspectorate.

Anti-depressant successful on stressed rats

Symptoms of depression caused by an inflammatory response could be alleviated by a new treatment, a study on rats has shown.

Skin cells to brain cells for better treatments

Skin cells have been transformed directly into functioning brain cells for the first time in a new study using mice.

BUAV student guide economical with the truth

What is wrong with animal experiments? asks BUAV's new ‘guide for students' and it is a question worth asking.

Public opinion polling: what is it for?

A paper in the January 2010 Journal of Biomedical Ethics gives an interesting insight into the use of public opinion polls by all sides in the UK animal research debate.

Bad design or bad reporting?

Critiques of animal research usually focus on issues such as the need for the study, the number of animals used, and how they are treated.

Pregnancy malaria risk shows need for research

A new study which estimates that approximately 60% of global pregnancies are at risk from malaria will highlight the need for continued research into treatments for the disease.

Exercise boosts brain power

Running a few days a week can stimulate the brain to grow new cells, research on mice has revealed.

Zebrafish are good models for human disease

Recent studies show zebrafish to be a useful animal model in studying mental illness and neurological diseases.

Eyes and sense of smell could act as indicators of Alzheimer's

Examining patients eye cells and ability to smell may help detect Alzheimer's disease earlier on, research on mice suggests.

Sharing the pie: new animal numbers activity for schools

How much do you know about which animals are used most in medical research and which are used least? Sharing the Pie, the latest addition to the Learning Centre's suite of activities for schools, is a fun way to find out.

New drug reverses effects of stroke

Stroke victims could regain near complete restoration of movement thanks to a new drug, research on rats has shown.

Potential cause of migraine identified

Rays of light act as a potential trigger for migraine attacks, a study on rats has found.

Science and the media – a call to action

Act now to safeguard improvements in science reporting – that is the message to the scientific community and government in the UK from a new strategic report published today.

Double bill in The Times for animal research

Most recently the Sunday Times cover piece last weekend took an in depth look at what goes on in animal labs in the UK, and the issues behind the research.

Radiation benefits for Alzheimer's mice

Mobile phone radiation has been found to decrease the severity of Alzheimer's disease in mice, according to new research.

Leukaemia vaccine ready for patients

A new vaccine which successfully treated mice with leukaemia will undergo the first human trials this year.

Pork products aid foetal mouse brain development

Eating pork that contains a micronutrient could help a growing brain develop, according to a recent study on mice.

Gel may help heart disease patients

A gel made of compounds found naturally in the body could be used to grow new blood vessels, research on rats has shown.

Gene therapy eases breathing problems

Delivering genes to specific cells which cause the lung disease emphysema could be key to alleviating breathing difficulties, research on mice suggests.

Rabies vaccine protects monkeys against HIV

A vaccine based on the one used to prevent rabies can be used to protect against the monkey form of HIV (SIV), a new study has found.

Artificial blood cells help clotting

Patients who are unable to form blood clots could be aided by a newly designed blood cell, research on rats has found.

Childhood diabetes, food sweetener link

A new study has shown that the food sweetener fructose can cause dangerous body fat deposits and trigger diabetes and heart disease in humans.

Abnormal body clock linked to heart disease

High blood pressure may be linked to disruptions in the circadian body clocks, a study on mice suggests.

Loneliness linked to cancer in rats

Loneliness and stress are more likely to cause breast cancer, a study using rats suggests.

Great blog, but sadly anonymous

Here in the Understanding Animal Research office we were delighted to read this well written and interesting blog titled ‘Why we experiment on animals' on the Times newspapers new science site Eureka Zone.

Novel treatment to tackle Hepatitis C

Targeting host molecules instead of the virus has proved successful in killing the Hepatitis C virus (HCV), research on chimpanzees has found.

Missing link found in foetal heart failure

The inability to form a blood clot in a foetal blood vessel has been linked to heart failure in newborns, a study using mice has discovered.

Stem cell therapy restores vision in rats

Vision in blind rats has been restored by a UK team in collaboration with international scientists.

New virus helps combat brain tumours

Aggressive brain tumours can be killed and prevented from recurring using a virus, a new study using mice has found.

Stomach hormone protects against Parkinson’s disease

A study involving mice has revealed that a hormone originating in the stomach has a new use in boosting resistance to Parkinson's disease.

Cancer vaccine implant success in mice

A cancer ‘vaccine' which can be implanted under the skin and instructs the body to attack tumour cells has proved successful in experiments with mice.

Blood transfusion between animals - one of science's oldest iconic papers now online

The new Trailblazing scheme from the Royal Society sheds light on some of the most iconic scientific discoveries of all time, and allows users to access digitised versions of these iconic scientific papers.

Why a little bit of dirt never harmed anyone

‘Friendly' bacteria living on the skin can be beneficial to our health, according to new research using mice and human cells.

Ten years old and nothing gained

The animal rights extremist group SHAC is 10 years old this month. But the activists who fly this flag have nothing to celebrate.

Will we hear the sound of music again?

Julie Andrews, the star of musicals Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music has announced she will return to the London stage next year after more than 30 years.

Better understanding of need for new brain cells

Scientists know that the adult brain continues to create new nerve cells (neurons), but the reason why this happens is poorly understood.

Artificial skin from stem cells for fast burn treatment

Sheets of 'substitute skin' from human embryonic stem cells have been grafted onto mice in the laboratory.

Biomatrix may allow tumour testing without mice

Mice are used widely in the study of cancer and to test the clinical efficiency and safety of anti-cancer therapies.

New MS treatment for spinal cord injury?

Researchers have made a step forward in treating nerve cells damaged in spinal cord injuries, using guinea pig tissues.

Unlimited supply of rare cells produced in the lab

A new method to treat arthritis has proven successful in mice, and holds strong hopes for treating other autoimmune disorders.

Rock band unleashes violence tirade at UK gig

We aren't sure if it's because it was Friday the 13th but unlucky Flaming Lips fans were faced with an unpleasant display at a gig in Portsmouth last week.

Lung tumour treatment shows promise

Researchers have discovered a new medicine which is able to stop lung tumours from growing in mice, even eliminating them altogether in half of all cases.

Lords take balanced approach but concerns remain

Understanding Animal Research welcomes the report published this week by the House of Lords EU Committee.

Considering what it is to be human

The Academy of Medical Sciences has launched a new project to examine the use of animals containing human material in scientific research.

Damaging effects of fat reversed

Researchers have long known that overweight people are more likely to develop conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.

Gene therapy repairs damaged lungs

Using outside-the-body gene therapy in pig and human lungs, researchers have repaired donated organs that were deemed too damaged to transplant.

Infiltration raises questions

The recent infiltration of a UK safety testing facility by an antivivisectionist raises many questions.

Gene therapy promise for muscular dystrophy

Scientists have developed a new gene therapy successful in treating the most severe type of muscular dystrophy in mice.

High-protein diet shrinks brain

Past research has suggested that high protein diets, such as the Atkin's diet, can increase the risk of heart disease and kidney problems.

Loose laws and bad judgements

Weighing up the cost to animals and the potential benefit of any particular research program is no simple task.

Opening doors

Towards replacing rabbit eye tests

Two new 'non-animal methods', have now been approved by OECD for testing the irritancy of some substances to the eye.

Dogma would deny dogs new cancer drug

Antivivisectionists have spoken out against giving dogs with cancer a new cancer drug.

When the going gets tough...

Beating heart muscle engineered

Scientists have grown a thin strip of heart muscle, which is able to beat spontaneously, using stem cells from a mouse embryo.

Gene therapy treats Parkinson’s tremors

Researchers have used gene therapy to correct movement problems in macaque monkeys with Parkinson’s symptoms.

Cholesterol beneficial to brain cell development

Researchers have discovered that a derivative of cholesterol is necessary for forming brain cells.

Healing properties of stem cells improved

In a mouse study, scientists have engineered stem cells to enhance their healing properties.

Longer life for donated hearts

A discovery in pigs could increase the number of transplants that can be performed.

Longer, healthier lives for mice

Scientists have extended the lifespan of mice by manipulating their genomes.

Treating brain secondaries in mice with breast cancer

Scientists have shown that the drug vorinostat is able to cross the blood-brain barrier, and reduce the development of brain tumours in mice.

Lack of sleep linked to Alzheimer's

Studies using mice suggest that lack of sleep could increase the development of plaques in the brain, accelerating the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

White blood cells set the pace of wound repair

After more than 50 experiments in mice, scientists have mapped out how a set of white blood cells (lymphocytes) set the pace of recovery after serious lung injury.

UK Bioscience submits supplementary evidence to the House of Lords European Union Committee Inquiry

The UK Bioscience sector prepared a submission of supplementary evidence to the House of Lords European Union Committee, Sub –Committee D (Environment and Agriculture) on the revision of Directive 86/609.

Time for more change in America

We have been watching with great concern the animal rights extremists’ campaigns taking place in the United States and California in particular.

'Master gene' for immune cells identified

Researchers have identified the master gene that causes blood stem cells to turn into natural killer (NK) immune cells.

Gene therapy for colour blindness

A team of scientists have restored colour vision to two colour blind squirrel monkeys using gene therapy.

Stem cell link to prostate cancer

A new study identifies a stem cell that may cause some types of prostate cancer, at least in mice.

How broccoli protects arteries

Researchers have discovered one reason why broccoli and other green leafy vegetables are definitely good for you.

New research shows public opinion supportive of animal research

Pioneers of stem cell research in animals win 'pre-Nobel'

The 2009 Albert Lasker basic medical research prize has just gone to stem cell pioneers John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka for their work using frogs and mice.

EU tries to avoid using 54 million more animals

A recent study suggests that the chemical industry will have to spend €9.5 billion (US$13.6 billion) on safety testing over the next decade.

Diesel fumes grow new blood vessels?

New findings indicate that the link between diesel exhaust fumes and cancer lies in the ability of particles within the exhaust fumes to cause the growth of new blood vessels, which can aid tumour development.

The Shuffle: new interactive

Understanding where medicines come from – the long process from basic research, through clinical trails, to licensing and prescription – is not always easy for professional researchers, let alone young people.

Key protein in obesity related diseases

It is well known that obesity can lead to health problems such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and it is thought that this is due to low-grade inflammation.

Balanced diet best for arteries

A team studying the effect of diet on the cardiovascular system in mice have shown that a diet low in carbohydrates could lead to artery damage.

Monkeys with two mums may eradicate mitochondrial disorders

Scientists have produced four infant monkeys using a technique which could stop women with genetic diseases passing them on to their children.

Patching a broken heart

A team of scientists have developed a patch which could help the heart to heal after damage.

I'm Not a Chimp

How similar are we really to chimpanzees?

Leishmania parasites feed immune cells

Researchers using mice have shown how the Leishmania parasite, transmitted by sand flies, establishes infection.

'Magnetic' stem cells target damaged blood vessels

Scientists have harnessed the power of magnetism to guide stem cells towards damaged tissue in rats.

New target for stopping colon cancer

A team of scientists studying mice have found a target that could lead to an effective way to kill colon cancer cells.

Delaying motor neurone disease

By blocking the production of a faulty protein in mice, researchers have delayed the onset of motor neurone disease, improved mobility, and extended life-span.

How infection can lead to psychiatric problems

Scientists using mice have discovered how early exposure to a common type of bacterium can lead to psychiatric disorders.

Nanobees deliver deadly sting

A group of scientists has harnessed the power of bee venom and used it to kill tumour cells in mice.

Schools drama released on DVD

Every Breath, an award-winning drama-based set of teaching resources from Y Touring Theatre Company is now available on DVD, free to schools.

Stopping cancer spreading

Working with 'substitute' breast cancer stem cells and mice, scientists have discovered a chemical which can kill the cells that cause tumours to spread and return, even after seemingly successful treatment.

Glaucoma reversed in rats and humans

Researchers have reversed the symptoms of glaucoma in rats using medicated eye drops.

Heart stimulated to heal itself

Scientists have shown for the first time that it is possible to stimulate the heart to heal itself without the use of stem cell technology.

Rodent teeth grow from stem cells

Mice have grown new teeth from stem cells implanted into the jawbone.

Animal wrongs

The editorial in today's Financial Times about responding to the appalling animal rights extremist attacks in Switzerland is spot on.

Testing, testing …

Why is the concept of animal research so difficult to grasp?

Chimps get AIDS too

Scientists have discovered that the natural hosts of a strain of SIV develop AIDS when infected.

Food dye aids spinal crush injury

A blue dye – similar to that used in M&Ms and liquorice allsorts – can help protect rats' crushed spinal cords from further damage.

Skin stem cells make mouse clones

A new kind of stem cell, that doesn't involve destroying embryos, has produced new life.

Snails, slime moulds and flies

Government funding for alternatives research, through NC3Rs, has nearly doubled this year compared with 2008.

Gene controller causes Down syndrome

Researchers have used mice to pinpoint what goes wrong in aneuploidy, which includes the most common genetic disorders involving chromosomes, usually an extra chromosome.

New way to reduce anaphylactic shock

Using mice, scientists have pinpointed the molecule which is responsible for making allergic reactions more severe.

Swine flu research

Our own modest contribution to swine flu information is now online, as the government estimates the number of new cases of swine flu in England reached 100,000 in the past week.

What do they know?

We recently became aware of a new website that can be used to make Freedom of Information requests and acts as an archive for all information received.

Animal research statistics for Great Britain, 2008

Fat busting pill?

An artificial hormone has reduced body weight and fat mass in mice, and fast.

PeTA boobs again

The latest completely irresponsible PeTA campaign uses a crass computer game to push its 'breasts not animal tests' message to children. The web is all a-twitter with reviews panning the game.

Single shot reverses rabies

UK bioscience sector publishes detailed response on European regulation

A dozen organisations representing UK bioscience have published their answers, many of them detailed, to 72 questions posed by the UK Home Office.

Caffeine halts Alzheimer's

Using GM mice, scientists have shown that caffeine can reduce dementia symptoms.

Elixir from Easter Island?

apamycin was found in soil on Easter Island 40 years ago.

Hype, hope and hybrids

The three-year public debate in the UK on animal-hybrid embryos was always a secondary issue for Understanding Animal Research and its forerunners, but an important one.

Medical drama

A TV dramatisation of Edwardian antivivisection protest on Sunday night in Casualty 1909 shows there's little new in the public debate over animal research and testing.

40,000 trout undercut costs, increase accuracy

The largest animal study ever on the cancer-causing risk (carcinogenicity) of chemicals could have profound implications for the species used in such testing, the numbers of animals used, and the accuracy of current tests.

Gene suppression in type 2 diabetes

Blocking the action of a gene called Sirtuin-1 reduced the symptoms of type 2 diabetes in rats, scientists have found.

Recommended reading

The National Centre for the Three Rs has produced a handy 'beginners guide' to the 3Rs - Refinement, Reduction and Replacement - and how they can benefit science, innovation and animal welfare.

Targeting skin cancer

Using fish, scientists have discovered a signalling pathway that could be used to treat skin cancers (melanomas).

A tale of three species

The law of unintended consequences may have led to saving rabbits at the expense of a two incredible species: a prehistoric invertebrate and a small bird with one of the most impressive known migrations.

GM mice get Parkinson's disease

Researchers have created a GM mouse that develops Parkinson's disease.

Novel gene therapy reverses haemophilia

Scientists using mice have developed a new way to deliver gene therapies.

An Odyssey exploring the debate

A book to be published soon promises a considered, less polarised approach to the animal rights debate.

Protein culprit in Huntington's disease

Why does Huntington's disease lead to the death of brain cells, whilst causing negligible damage to cells elsewhere in the body?

Nanoparticles seek out plaques in arteries

Researchers have designed small particles - ‘nanoparticles' - that are able to selectively bind to plaques in arteries.

Effect of breast cancer gene reversed

Scientists have identified a gene implicated in up to one fifth of breast cancers. The good news is that studies in mice seem to show a commonly-used blood pressure drug appears to reverse the effects of the gene.

Pig cells transplant potential

Scientists have found a way to turn adult cells from pigs into any tissue in the body.

UK bioscience sector submits evidence to Lords

The House of Lords European Union Committee, Sub-Committee D (Environment and Agriculture) has begun to take oral evidence on the revision of the European Directive on animal experimentation

Japanese scientists produce fluorescing marmosets

Transgenic mice have been used in research for the last 20 years, and have made significant contributions to biomedical research.

Cold virus fights cancer selectively

Scientists have managed to modify the cold virus so that it only targets and damages cancerous cells.

Sticky antibodies prevent onset of vCJD

Antibodies able to bind to a protein in the brain show promise in mice for preventing fatal prion diseases like vCJD (variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease).

EU proposals endanger HIV research

Researchers have identified a cheap, commonly-used compound that, applied vaginally, can stop monkeys being infected with a monkey...

Could the liver hold the key to Alzheimer's?

sing rats, scientists have clarified the role of the liver in the clearance of a toxic protein thought to be the cause of Alzheimer’s disease.

Gene controls formation of tooth enamel

A team of researchers have pin-pointed the gene which controls the production of tooth enamel in mice, called Ctip2.

Single dose may stop multiple flu strains

Cancer cells baited into suicide

Other countries should follow our lead

An animal rights campaigner who fire-bombed Oxford University was jailed last week for 10 years after being found guilty of conspiracy to commit arson.

What's new - a quick quiz

Take our quiz: how much do you really know about animal research? Everyone has an opinion, but not everyone has the facts.

Manganese, ticks and Lyme disease

Working with mice, researchers have identified a protein that may help thousands of people in the USA who contract Lyme disease each year.

What's new - a moving timeline

We have now added an illustrated medical history timeline to the Your Health section of the Understanding Animal Research website.

Revision of European regulation of animal research gets underway

Today the Agriculture committee in the European Parliament gets evidence from experts in the research community about animal research.

Multiple gene mutations in autism spectrum

Researchers using mice have further evidence that more than one gene is involved in people with genetic-based autism, with the number of genes involved being linked to the severity of the disorder.

Protection from Parkinson's in mice

Recent research shows that an increased level of a protein found in the brain can provide protection from Parkinson's Disease in mice.

Protein slows Alzheimer's progression

Scientists using animals have discovered that a naturally occurring protein administered to specific areas of the brain could slow or stop the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Lessons from Darwin, too

Writing in today's Times, Professor Colin Blakemore says everyone wants a piece of Charles Darwin on the 200th anniversary of his birth.

Medicines from GM goats

Can't play, won't play

An editorial in this week’s edition of the leading science journal, Nature, calls on the US authorities to tackle animal rights extremism as effectively as we have in the UK.

And the prize goes to...

National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) awards

Implants and the immune system fight cancer

Leukaemia seduces blood cells

Researchers using mice believe they have found a way to help stem cells regain their normal function in leukaemia patients.

Mice mimic glioblastoma

Spinal injury treatment trials move to humans

A trial using stem cells to treat spinal injury is to begin after promising results in animals.

False information on monkey research

What is animal research.

Scientific research using animals is vital to our continued and improved understanding of human and animal health. Animals are used to help us understand living organisms, study disease, and develop and test new medical treatments. 

Animal research is also used to keep people, animals and the environment safe from new medicines and chemicals. Animal research is heavily regulated in the UK and can only take place with permission from the Home Office and when there is no other way to do the research.

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Research articles

Paper towel shredding as a novel, affordable, noninvasive method for detecting arousals in hibernating rodents

Researchers have developed a cost-effective, noninvasive method for determining torpor-bout duration in heterothermic mammals. They used the paper towel shredding behavior of ground squirrels to detect 59 arousals with 100% accuracy over 52 days. This method avoids the drawbacks of other cheap monitoring systems such as the sawdust technique.

• Amalie J. Hutchinson
• Brynne M. Duffy
• James F. Staples

Rat microbial biogeography and age-dependent lactic acid bacteria in healthy lungs

The authors defined rat microbial biogeography by re-analyzing publicly available RNA sequencing data from 11 organs of juvenile, adolescent, adult and aged Fisher 344 rats.

• Christine M. Cunningham
• Mark R. Nicolls

Open-source versatile 3D-print animal conditioning platform design for in vivo preclinical brain imaging in awake mice and anesthetized mice and rats

The study introduces an open-source, customizable 3D printable design for rodent conditioning for magnetic resonance imaging and other imaging modalities. The design is easy to use and can be applied to both anesthetized and awake mice, and anesthetized rats.

• Zakia Ben Youss
• Tanzil Mahmud Arefin
• Omid Yaghmazadeh

Using mice from different breeding sites fails to improve replicability of results from single-laboratory studies

Poor replicability in animal research can be a result of low external validity driven by rigorous standardization of study populations. This study investigates how heterogenization of study populations by using mice from different breeding sites might affect the replicability of animal studies conducted in a single facility. The findings suggest that heterogenization by breeding site has limited capacity to improve replicability in animal research.

• Ivana Jaric
• Bernhard Voelkl
• Hanno Würbel

A systematic review of the impact of environmental enrichment in zebrafish

Environmental enrichment is a home-based intervention that mimics natural habitats for laboratory-housed animals. This systematic review of 27 environmental enrichment protocols finds consistent benefits for zebrafish welfare while raising the importance of a standardizing protocol to improve reproducibility of results.

• Matheus Gallas-Lopes
• Radharani Benvenutti
• Matheus Marcon

Generation of a C57BL/6J mouse strain expressing the CD45.1 epitope to improve hematopoietic stem cell engraftment and adoptive cell transfer experiments

The authors used a gene-editing approach to generate a C57BL/6J mouse model expressing the CD45.1 epitope. The model, which overcomes some of the issues reported with the congenic mouse B6.SJL, could be useful for adoptive cell transfer experiments.

• Daphné Laubreton
• Sophia Djebali
• Jacqueline Marvel

The PREMISE database of 20 Macaca fascicularis PET/MRI brain images available for research

The authors present a simultaneous PET/MR dataset of 20 Macaca fascicularis images structured according to the Brain Imaging Data Structure standards. The PREMISE database is stored and available through the PRIME-DE consortium repository.

• Lucie Chalet
• Justine Debatisse
• Guillaume Becker

Aotus nancymaae model predicts human immune response to the placental malaria vaccine candidate VAR2CSA

The authors show that VAR2CSA-based placental malaria vaccine candidates induce similar responses in Aotus nancymaae monkeys as those reported in humans; these findings suggest that the Aotus model is suitable for preclinical downselection of placental malaria vaccine candidates.

• Justin Doritchamou
• Morten A. Nielsen
• Patrick E. Duffy

Plasma metabolomics supports non-fasted sampling for metabolic profiling across a spectrum of glucose tolerance in the Nile rat model for type 2 diabetes

The authors used liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry to compare the metabolic profile of non-fasted and fasted plasma samples in the Nile rat model of type 2 diabetes. Metabolite measurements in non-fasted samples were more reproducible than in fasted samples, supporting the use of non-fasted plasma metabolomics to study glucose tolerance in Nile rats during diabetes progression.

• Benton J. Anderson
• Anne M. Curtis

Systematic review and meta-analysis of 10 years of unpredictable chronic stress in zebrafish

Unpredictable chronic stress (UCS) increases anxiety/fear-related behavior and cortisol levels while decreasing locomotor performance, according to a systematic analysis of 38 studies on UCS in zebrafish. To further assess the effects of UCS on zebrafish behavior, future well-designed trials are required.

• Leonardo M. Bastos
• Ana P. Herrmann

Development of two mouse strains conditionally expressing bright luciferases with distinct emission spectra as new tools for in vivo imaging

Two Cre-dependent reporter mice, oFluc and Akaluc, were created and tested for bioluminescence in neural tissues and organs. Both strains were brighter than the classical luciferase Luc2, potentially facilitating in vivo bioluminescence imaging of various tissues.

• Toshiaki Nakashiba
• Katsunori Ogoh

Group size planning for breedings of gene-modified mice and other organisms following Mendelian inheritance

The authors developed an R package that enables the estimation of group size required for mouse breeding, taking into account Mendelian genetics, fertility and litter size.

• Vladislava Milchevskaya
• Philippe Bugnon
• Thorsten Buch

Generation of the NeoThy mouse model for human immune system studies

This protocol describes a humanized mouse model created using neonatal thymus and umbilical cord blood hematopoietic stem cells as nonfetal human tissue sources.

• Natalia M. Del Rio
• Liupei Huang
• Matthew E. Brown

Rapid ammonia build-up in small individually ventilated mouse cages cannot be overcome by adjusting the amount of bedding

The authors investigated the influence of housing density and bedding volume on ammonia build-up in two individually ventilated mouse cages models. While the amount of bedding had no influence on ammonia levels, smaller Type II individually ventilated cages accumulated higher ammonia levels than larger Type III individually ventilated cages, even at similar housing densities.

• Mahmud A. Eskandarani
• Otto Kalliokoski

Infection of neonatal mice with the murine norovirus strain WU23 is a robust model to study norovirus pathogenesis

A mouse model to study norovirus pathogenesis is described. The murine norovirus strain WU23, originally isolated from an intestinal site, induces severe but self-resolving diarrhea in neonates, reflecting the pathology observed during human norovirus infection.

• Amy M. Peiper
• Emily W. Helm
• Stephanie M. Karst

Medetomidine/midazolam/fentanyl narcosis alters cardiac autonomic tone leading to conduction disorders and arrhythmias in mice

Tomsits and colleagues investigated the effects of medetomidine/midazolam/fentanyl and isoflurane/fentanyl narcosis on murine cardiac autonomic nervous activity and electrophysiology. The results show that, compared with medetomidine/midazolam/fentanyl narcosis, isoflurane/fentanyl narcosis seems to have no effect on cardiac autonomic nervous function and less influence on cardiac electrophysiology.

• Philipp Tomsits
• Sebastian Clauß

A mapping review of refinements to laboratory rat housing and husbandry

A large number of refinements have been studied with the aim to improve rat welfare, but more evidence is needed to fully understand their impact. This mapping review draws on the findings of 1,017 studies to show that different refinements impact different rats in different ways, and that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to refinements might not be appropriate.

• Vikki Neville
• Michael Mendl

Early growth response 2 in the mPFC regulates mouse social and cooperative behaviors

Using behavioral assays, transcriptome analysis and viral approaches to manipulate gene expression in the mPFC, Zhang et al. identified an important role for early growth response 2 (Egr2/Krox-20) in the development of social and cooperative behaviors in mice.

• Yanli Zhang

Construction and evaluation of a clinically relevant model of septic arthritis

A clinically relevant murine model of septic arthritis via direct inoculation of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus into the knee joint is described. This protocol details methods for serum, synovial fluid and knee joint tissue analysis that more closely mimic the workup of septic arthritis in human patients.

• Hyuk-Kwon Kwon
• Kristin E. Yu
• Francis Y. Lee

Refinement of the stress-enhanced fear learning model of post-traumatic stress disorder: a behavioral and molecular analysis

Rats undergoing the stress-enhanced fear learning procedure are usually housed in social isolation and exposed to a trauma-like experience of 15 massed electric footshocks. By showing that group-housed rats receiving fewer and lower-magnitude electric shocks still exhibit PTSD-relevant changes, this new study presents refinements of the procedure to reduce potential animal pain.

• Indra A. Van Assche
• Mc Stephen Padilla
• Amy L. Milton

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The aflas congress 2023 successfully wraps up with global participation.

The 9th Asian Federation of Laboratory Animal Science Associations Congress 2023 (AFLAS Congress 2023), themed 'One Health and One Welfare,' concluded on September 13-15 in Jeju Island, Korea. Please find more details about the conference here .

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Comparison of cisplatin-induced anti-tumor response in ct26 syngeneic tumors of three balb/c substrains.

To determine whether the background of BALB/c substrains affects the response to anti-tumor drugs, authors measured for alterations in tumor growth, histopathological structure of the tumor, and expressions of tumor-related proteins in three BALB/c substrains derived from different sources, after exposure to varying concentrations of cisplatin.

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Sensitivity to tumor development by TALEN-mediated Trp53 mutant genes in the susceptible FVB/N mice and the resistance C57BL/6 mice

This study was undertaken to compare the sensitivities of mice strains during tumor induction by transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALEN)-mediated Trp53 mutant gene. Alterations of their tumorigenic phenotypes including survival rate, tumor formation and tumor spectrum, were assessed in FVB/N-Trp53em2Hwl/Korl and C57BL/6-Trp53em1Hwl/Korl knockout (KO) mice over 16 weeks.

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Swallowing-related muscle inflammation and fibrosis induced by a single dose of radiation exposure in mice

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Experimental animal models for diabetes and its related complications-a review.

Diabetes mellitus, a very common and multifaceted metabolic disorder is considered as one of the fastest growing public health problems in the world. It is characterized by hyperglycemia, a condition with high glucose level in the blood plasma resulting from defects in insulin secretion or its action and in some cases both the impairment in secretion and also action of insulin coexist.

Kottaisamy, Chidhambara Priya Dharshini; Raj, Divya S.; Kumar, V. Prasanth; Sankaran, Umamaheswari

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The animal model deals with the species other than the human, as it can imitate the disease progression, its’ diagnosis as well as a treatment similar to human. Discovery of a drug and/or component, equipment, their toxicological studies, dose, side effects are in vivo studied for future use in humans considering its’ ethical issues.

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An artificial womb could build a bridge to health for premature babies

Surgeon Christoph Haller and his research team from Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children are working on technology that could someday result in an artificial womb to help extremely premature babies. Chloe Ellingson for NPR hide caption

Surgeon Christoph Haller and his research team from Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children are working on technology that could someday result in an artificial womb to help extremely premature babies.

TORONTO — A surgical team scurries around a pregnant female pig lying unconscious on an operating table. They're about to take part in an experiment that could help provide a new option to help premature babies survive.

"The ultimate goal of today is to transition a fetus onto that artificial womb," says Dr. Christoph Haller , motioning to a clear rectangular plastic sack with tubes running in and out of it.

"We're transitioning it into an artificial environment that allows the fetus to still maintain its regular physiology," says Haller, a pediatric heart surgeon at The Hospital for Sick Children.

Today, it's a pig fetus that Haller and his colleagues will be using to test their artificial womb. But their hope is that someday, technology like this will help humans survive extremely premature birth and avoid serious complications, such as blindness and permanent damage to lungs and brains.

A nonprofit says preterm births are up in the U.S. — and it's not a partisan issue

"We're basically trying to find a new concept on how to preserve fetuses to allow them to mature more physiologically compared to the regular preterm. That would be the target — to treat extreme premature babies," says Haller, who's also an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Toronto. "This would hopefully be a big deal — a game changer."

NPR was granted exclusive access to watch Haller's team test their artificial womb.

Research like this is generating enormous excitement among doctors who treat babies who are born prematurely , a major cause of infant mortality and disabilities. But the prospect of an artificial womb is prompting a long list of questions.

"I think it's a really promising and fascinating technology," says Dr. Mark Mercurio , a professor of pediatrics who directs the program for biomedical ethics at the Yale School of Medicine. "But certainly it raises ethical concerns and questions that need to be addressed."

The procedure remains highly experimental

A metal tray next to the pig's belly is covered with blue paper. Haller's team just drew a picture of a pig's face on the paper surrounded by the words "Oink. Oink. Oink." and "We ❤ you." Then they laid out the artificial womb on top of it. Some call this kind of contraption a "biobag."

A technician scans the belly of a pregnant pig before an operation to transfer a fetus to an artificial womb. Chloe Ellingson for NPR hide caption

A technician scans the belly of a pregnant pig before an operation to transfer a fetus to an artificial womb.

Next, the surgical team arranges equipment and examines the 10 fetuses in the sow's womb with an ultrasound. Haller uses a clipper to make some last-minute adjustments to tubing he'll stitch into the fetal pig's umbilical cord.

The tubes will supply the fetus's blood with oxygen, remove carbon dioxide from the blood and supply nutrition and medicine.

"I'm MacGyvering stuff here to make things work," he says with a laugh.

Finally, everyone's ready to remove one of the fetuses.

"All right, I think we're going to get started," Haller says, prompting the team to gather tightly around the pig.

Wisps of smoke rise from the pig's belly as Haller makes an incision with an electric scalpel. An assistant suctions the area to keep it dry.

Dr. Christoph Haller performs surgery to remove a fetal pig from the adult pig's womb. Chloe Ellingson for NPR hide caption

Dr. Christoph Haller performs surgery to remove a fetal pig from the adult pig's womb.

"So what you're looking at is basically the uterus. And then in here is the fetus. The head's somewhere here, where I have my hand. The rest of the body is still inside," he says.

After deciding which fetus looks best on the ultrasound, Haller makes another incision in the uterus and pulls out a bright pink fetal piglet. The fetus looks peaceful, like it's sleeping.

Once the fetus is completely out, Haller and his team quickly assess its health and cut the umbilical cord so they can transfer the animal into the artificial womb.

A "biobag" becomes the new womb

After gingerly sliding the fetus into the "biobag," Haller quickly attaches the three umbilical cord tubes. His colleagues fill the bag with a clear, warm liquid meant to mimic amniotic fluid and seal the artificial womb.

"It's going to be a bit of a rocky period now," Haller says.

A fetal pig rests inside an artificial womb. Chloe Ellingson for NPR hide caption

A fetal pig rests inside an artificial womb.

The team carefully monitors the fetus's heart rate, blood pressure and other vital signs. Once it looks stable, the researchers surround the biobag with warmers.

"It's as close to a good transition as you can get I think," Haller says. "I'm excited as if it was a proper human surgery I would say — just because I want to get it right and I want to see the fetus doing well there."

This will go on for hours.

"You may see the fetus starting to have breathing-like movements. But that's what's in line with what's happening in utero too — as if they are training basically a bit. You may see that it kicks its legs," Haller says. "That's what we like to see because it signals a certain level of health."

An artificial womb could be a bridge to better health

If very premature babies can be safely sustained on a device like this for just two or three weeks, it could make all the difference between life and death or a life with severe disabilities and health problems or not, Haller says.

The Toronto group has seen blood clots and heart problems develop. So far, they've only been able to sustain a pig fetus for about a week.

But researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia have safely sustained fetal sheep on a very similar device for four weeks, making the Toronto group and others optimistic the approach will eventually work.

"If this artificial womb technology could sustain a patient even for a period of weeks and get them to a later stage and a bigger size, that could potentially be quite a dramatic change in our field," says Dr. Mike Seed , an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Toronto who is working with Haller.

Scientific progress prompts ethical concerns

But the possibility of an artificial womb is also raising many questions. When might it be safe to try an artificial womb for a human? Which preterm babies would be the right candidates? What should they be called? Fetuses? Babies?

"It matters in terms of how we assign moral status to individuals," says Mercurio, the Yale bioethicist. "How much their interests — how much their welfare — should count. And what one can and cannot do for them or to them."

But Mercurio is optimistic those issues can be resolved, and the potential promise of the technology clearly warrants pursuing it.

The Food and Drug Administration held a workshop in September 2023 to discuss the latest scientific efforts to create an artificial womb, the ethical issues the technology raises, and what questions would have to be answered before allowing an artificial womb to be tested for humans.

"I am absolutely pro the technology because I think it has great potential to save babies," says Vardit Ravitsky , president and CEO of The Hastings Center, a bioethics think tank.

But there are particular issues raised by the current political and legal environment.

"My concern is that pregnant people will be forced to allow fetuses to be taken out of their bodies and put into an artificial womb rather than being allowed to terminate their pregnancies — basically, a new way of taking away abortion rights," Ravitsky says.

She also wonders: What if it becomes possible to use artificial wombs to gestate fetuses for an entire pregnancy, making natural pregnancy unnecessary?

"Science fiction writers have been playing with this notion for decades. It's not like we never thought about it. It's just different to think about it as a thought experiment and to think about it as something that's potentially around the corner," Ravitsky says. "The scenario of a complete use of artificial wombs could become pretty scary, pretty quickly."

But Haller and his colleagues say the darkest worries are unfounded.

Shots - Health News

The u.s. has a high rate of preterm births, and abortion bans could make that worse.

"We've heard people fearing that this translates into women not having to go through a full pregnancy anymore — kind of more like a Matrix -style of dystopian future," Haller says.

"But it would be outrageous to assume that any artificial intervention in any way is better than nature. So if you're not running into problems in your pregnancy, I think there's a lot of evidence that you're better off being born as you should be from what nature intended," he says.

Haller and his colleagues, he says, are just trying to save babies.

"Every tool can be misused," he says. "Like AI — it has its benefits, but if it's not regulated adequately a lot of harm can arise from something like that as well."

Meanwhile, the fetal pig is settling into its new artificial womb.

"I think it looks pretty, pretty comfy and settled," Haller says. "It looks pretty, pretty happy in there. Yeah, it's good."

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April 15, 2024

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New research highlights aging dog health care needs

by University of Liverpool

New research from the University of Liverpool shows that dog owners think many important changes in their older pets are "just old age," when actually they are signs of serious health problems.

The researchers surveyed more than 600 dog owners and more than 300 veterinary professionals across the UK. Dog owners were asked if they had noticed any of a list of 48 different clinical signs in their older dogs and how urgently they thought they should seek veterinary advice when they noticed them.

The research team identified that dog owners regularly attributed potentially serious changes in older dogs to normal aging, and thus may not take them to see a vet.

How often should an aging dog see a vet?

The majority of owners believed a "healthy" senior dog (seven years plus) should go to the vet once a year, whereas veterinary professionals most commonly advised every six months.

A minority (14%) of owners would take the dog only "if they got sick," but almost all (98%) of veterinary professionals would not advise this strategy. Sixteen percent of owners of dogs of all ages had not had any contact with their veterinary practice in the previous year.

To vaccinate or not to vaccinate?

Health checks often occur during vaccination appointments, and 92% of veterinary professionals believed that senior dogs should receive yearly vaccinations; however, 28% of owners' dogs of all ages had not been vaccinated in the previous year. In fact, a third of these owners did not believe that older dogs need vaccinations.

Urgency to seek care

Dog owners who stated that their dog had experienced a clinical sign typically reported less urgency to seek veterinary care than owners whose dog had never experienced it and responded to a hypothetical question asking what they would do if they noticed this sign in their dog.

The majority of veterinary professionals (85–100%) thought that it was moderately to extremely important for owners of senior dogs to seek veterinary advice for all 15 of the most common clinical signs. The three most common clinical signs reported by owners in their older dogs were slowing down on walks (57%), dental tartar (53%), and being stiff on rising (50%).

However, fewer than 70% of owners would seek veterinary care for their dog within a week for dental issues (bad breath and tartar) or musculoskeletal issues (problems with stairs/jumping, slowing down on walks, and stiff on rising).

Dog owners attribute clinical signs to 'just old age'

Veterinary professionals reported that they believed owners commonly associated sleeping all the time, slowing down on walks, being stiff on rising, and the presence of dental tartar with old age rather than potential illness. Owners' opinions were broadly in line with veterinary professionals' perceptions of them. For example, 78% of owners believed slowing down on walks was a normal part of the aging process and would not take their dog to the vet for and, and 77% for sleeping all the time.

Study co-author Professor Carri Westgarth said, "Perceptions of dog owners and veterinary professionals can influence the preventive health care and treatment provided to dogs, especially at the senior life stage, when chronic diseases become more common. The differences in opinion highlighted by our survey suggest that new educational initiatives and more effective communication are required."

Findings from this study have been used to support the design of a new resource that can facilitate communication between owners and veterinary professionals. A checklist of common missed clinical signs for use pre-veterinary appointments would be supported by both owners and veterinary professionals surveyed in the current study.

The BSAVA PetSavers Aging Canine Toolkit (ACT) leaflet and poster are currently in use in first-opinion practice, and feedback is being collected to measure the toolkit's impact on owners, veterinary professionals, and senior dogs.

Dr. Sarah Williams from BSAVA PetSavers said, "Screening tools and toolkits have the potential to increase owner understanding and engagement with veterinary care, and through repeated application over time and implementation of necessary interventions, improve patient welfare and health span."

The work is published in the journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science .

Provided by University of Liverpool

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Morning Rundown: Tensions high after USC cancels Muslim valedictorian's speech, Trump bemoans jury selection, and elite girls' school teacher accused of preying on students

We need to ban animal testing. Dr. Oz’s killing over 300 dogs is a perfect example of why.

On Monday, Jezebel reported that from 1989 to 2010, research by Dr. Mehmet Oz — the television personality and Republican Senate candidate in Pennsylvania — inflicted suffering on and killed over 300 dogs, 31 pigs and 661 rabbits and rodents. It was during Oz’s time as a principal investigator at a Columbia University lab. 

Ironically, the discovery comes on the heels of the Senate’s unanimously passing the FDA Modernization Act 2.0 last week. The measure would eliminate a federal mandate in the 1938 Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act requiring animal testing for new drugs. Drug developers would be permitted to use alternative methods to test for safety if this reform becomes law. That’s good news, but there should be a bill that ends animal testing altogether. Perhaps the latest news about Oz, playing out on the national stage, will hammer that point home.

Defenders of animal testing often argue that while it may be imperfect, it is our only option for advancing human medicine. This view neglects how differences in the bodies of species can lead to misleading information.

For context, the Humane Society estimates that over 50 million animals are used in laboratory experiments every year in the U.S. The Animal Welfare Act minimally protects some species. Still, as is alleged with Oz, violations routinely occur , and most animals tested are not covered . 

In these experiments, animals are exposed to toxic chemicals or diseases and imprisoned in barren cages . They are usually killed after experiments are completed.

Despite these grim realities, advocates of testing on animals argue that it is critical for medical developments and treatments in humans. To bolster their position, proponents of animal testing point to important discoveries throughout history in which animal research was involved. For example, in 1921, researchers Frederick G. Banting, Charles Best and John Macleod demonstrated that we could treat diabetes with insulin by performing experiments on laboratory dogs who had their pancreatic ducts tied; in 1939, a group of scientists discovered the antibiotic effect of Penicillium by infecting mice with a virulent strain of Streptococcus and then treating half of them with the Penicillium mold; in 1953, Jonas Salk produced the first inactivated polio vaccine using a virus grown on monkey kidney cells.

Moreover, those in favor of animal experimentation argue that substances that have not been first tested on animals at all or thoroughly enough pose threats to humans. One purported cautionary development occurred in the late 1950s and the early 1960s with thalidomide . Originally designed to be a sedative, it was found to have other healing effects. This “ wonder drug “ was found to help pregnant women with the symptoms of morning sickness. However, thalidomide had not been tested on pregnant animals .

Thousands of pregnant women took the drug internationally (it was not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but as many as 20,000 people in the U.S. were given the drug as part of a clinical trial, according to a New York Times report ).

A deeper dive into these claims reveals that animal testing is not all it is cracked up to be and that it may actually be hindering medical progress.

Sadly, it turned out that thalidomide can cause major birth defects, specifically in babies’ limbs, bones, ears, eyes and hearts , and can also lead to pregnancy loss or infant death. The drug was taken off the market, but the damage was done. According to one report , an estimated 24,000 babies were born with thalidomide-induced malformations worldwide, and 123,000 stillbirths and miscarriages were caused by the drug. Reflecting on this tragedy, one scientist noted that “had there been more extensive testing on laboratory animals before the drug was launched, the disaster could have been avoided.”

But a deeper dive into these claims reveals that animal testing is not all it is cracked up to be and that it may actually be hindering medical progress.

It is worth noting at the outset that a lot of experiments involving the use of animals are so poorly designed that their results are meaningless. One analysis found that among 2,671 papers from 1992 to 2011 that reported trials in animals, randomization was not reported in 75% of them, blinding was absent in 70%, and fewer than 1% and 12% had sample-size calculations and conflict of interest statements, respectively — all factors that can lead to inaccurate results. 

And even when the studies are designed reasonably well, the results do not usually hold up in humans. A 2004 FDA report found that 92% of drugs that pass the animal testing stage are ultimately abandoned .

So why, then, does animal experimentation often accompany breakthroughs in medicine? According to Dr. John J. Pippin , a former animal experimenter who is now the director of academic affairs at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a research and advocacy organization that promotes alternatives to animal research, it is essentially chance: “It may reasonably be stated that most medical advances have included animal experimental use; for decades, this has been the default approach. But it has not been demonstrated that such animal use has been essential or even reliable for medical advancement.”

Defenders of animal testing often argue that while it may be imperfect, it is our only option for advancing human medicine. This view neglects how differences in the bodies of species can lead to misleading information — which can be worse than no information. In addition, it ignores the reality of alternatives already available that are based on human biology and have the potential to increase research relevance and deliver more reliable risk assessments while maintaining existing safety levels. 

One of these breakthrough technologies is advanced data computing. A 2018 Johns Hopkins study suggested that scientists could use large databases of known chemicals to predict a new chemical’s toxic properties better than tests on animals.

Want more articles like this? Follow THINK on Instagram to get updates on the week’s most important political analysis  

Another viable alternative is organs-on-a-chip , or “organoids,” miniature tissues and organs in-vitro that enable modeling of human physiology and disease. Lung, liver, kidney, gut, skin, brain, heart and other organ chips have all been developed . They present many game-changing possibilities, including simulating particular diseases, such as cancer or heart disease, and providing researchers with a cost-effective way to evaluate the impacts of drugs in real time.

Other viable in-vitro methods include the use of “ biobanks ,” biological samples often left over from clinical procedures, such as surgery, or from dead bodies; technologies that use stem cells ; and even 3D printing . While some of these promising technologies are in their infancy, imagine what could be accomplished if the billions of dollars wasted on animal testing were allocated toward further advancing them.

Perhaps for all of these reasons, a 2018 Pew Research Center poll found that a growing majority of Americans oppose using animals in experiments. But for this projected boom in non-animal testing methods to catch up with public opinion, funding and regulatory bodies will need to explore a shift in focus, going well beyond the FDA Modernization Act 2.0. The fate of both animal and human life depends on it.

Top THINK stories related to animals

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Brian Kateman is a co-founder and the president of the  Reducetarian Foundation , a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing consumption of meat, eggs and dairy to create a healthy, sustainable and compassionate world. He is the author of “ Meat Me Halfway ” — inspired by a documentary of the same name — and the editor of “The Reducetarian Cookbook” and “The Reducetarian Solution.” He is an adjunct professor of environmental science and sustainability at Kean University and teaches environmental communications at Fordham University.

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Office of Research and Engagement Announces 2024-25 Samuel F. Conti Faculty Fellowship Award Recipients

The Office of Research and Engagement has announced the three recipients of the 2024-25 Samuel F. Conti Faculty Fellowship Award . The Conti Fellowship acknowledges the high quality and importance of a faculty member’s accomplishments in research and creative activity at UMass Amherst and their potential for continuing excellence, particularly with respect to the project that they propose to undertake during the fellowship.

The 2024-2025 Conti Fellows and descriptions of their planned fellowship research can be found below. More information about the program and previous Conti Fellows is available at https://www.umass.edu/research/samuel-f-conti-faculty-fellowship-award .

Kathleen Arcaro, Professor of Veterinary and Animal Sciences

Arcaro’s research areas include developing tools for early detection of breast cancer, discovery of molecular biomarkers for individual assessment of breast cancer risk and building strategies and programs to reduce risk. She currently uses breast milk as a model system for studying breast cancer risk and etiology. Breast milk provides a noninvasive method of obtaining breast samples, as an ounce of milk can contain millions of cells that are sloughed off from the lining of the glands. These cells are extremely useful in assessing genetic changes, including both the DNA mutations and epigenetic alterations, associated with breast cancer risk.

The fellowship will allow Arcaro time to develop a proposal to implement routine assessment of colostrum as a non-invasive, economical screening tool to detect pregnancy-initiated breast cancer. Colostrum is the nutrient rich milk that nursing mothers produce in the first few days after giving birth. Arcaro’s project will include development of a practical colostrum assessment strategy that can be broadly, routinely and economically implemented nationwide. Another goal of her research is to provide mothers with information about their milk allowing them to make informed decisions regarding breastfeeding.

References expressed that “Dr. Arcaro invests time and heart in building relationships of trust and mutual support with stakeholders in the maternal and child health field. She demonstrates the values of inclusion by building connections with advocates and leaders outside the traditional networks whose talented voices would otherwise be left out.”

Todd Emrick, Professor of Polymer Science and Engineering

Emrick’s research emphasizes the synthesis of new materials, including polymers and nanoscale particles that target a variety of applications in materials science, as well as materials that fuse polymers with drugs for therapeutic purposes. His focus for the Conti Fellowship is to build new platforms of electronic materials by designing revolutionary approaches to join synthetic polymers with electronically active substrates, including metals, graphene, and nanoscale particulates. 

The fellowship will provide him with an opportunity to build a network of researchers – both at UMass Amherst and nationally – to work together on new directions in hybrid materials interfaces. It will also provide Emrick with an opportunity for discovery in the electronic materials arena, where improving the lifetime and efficiency of devices is paramount to much-needed advances in sustainability. Additionally, he will work on student education and technical training aspects of his research, which are vital for ensuring global competitiveness of U.S. research and technology in this field.

Emrick was highly praised by his references, which included an endorsement that said “Emrick’s world-renowned research accomplishments, alongside his research leadership activities, have changed the field of polymer materials chemistry and have had a profound impact on students and faculty at UMass Amherst and far beyond.”

Elizabeth Krause, Professor of Anthropology

Krause conducts immersive, collaborative and participatory research that intends to illustrate that capitalism is not an essential design for society. Her ethnographic work illuminates local-global dynamics in terms of how ordinary people live with contradictions of power in an unequal yet extraordinary world. Topics span production and reproduction, migration and biopolitics, as well as fast-fashion and food studies. Krause’s latest project, “Pedagogy of Figs: Uncommon Lessons,” traces the cultivation, production and consumption of figs across time and space, from Old World to New World, understanding the contemporary and historical, economic, political, ecological and cultural contexts of the fruit. It productively investigates what figs can teach us, and how they can help us learn about culture, power and politics, as well as relationships between humans and non-humans.

The fellowship will provide Krause with time to pursue original research in anthropology, conduct fieldwork, finish her book, and oversee an international collaboration focused on pathbreaking environmental movements.

References expressed that “Dr. Krause’s scholarly profile exemplifies bold theoretical and ethnographic innovation. With a longstanding interest in political economy and local-global dynamics, her previous works have pushed disciplinary boundaries, from her exploration of reproduction and migration among sweater makers in Italy to her investigation of global families in the fast fashion industry.”

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What Do We Owe Lab Animals?

The standard ethical guidelines encourage minimizing the use of, and harm to, animals used in research. Some experts propose an additional courtesy: repayment.

By Brandon Keim

When Lauren Strohacker received her second Covid-19 vaccine dose in the spring of 2021, she rejoiced. It meant she could see her friends again, go to concerts and live with far less fear that an infection might leave her physically or financially devastated.

But it became a bittersweet memory. Not long after Ms. Strohacker, an artist based in Knox County, Tenn., returned home from the vaccination site, she read an article about monkeys used in testing Covid vaccines.

“I thought, I’m afraid of a stupid needle,” she said. “And these animals have to deal with this all the time.” She reflected on how her newfound freedom, and quite possibly her health, came at the expense of animals suffering or dying to develop the vaccines.

Merely being grateful for those animals seemed insufficient; Ms. Strohacker wanted to give something tangible in return. A little online research returned the National Anti-Vivisection Society’s sanctuary fund, which supports the care of retired lab animals. She made a small donation. “To give thanks was the very least I could do,” Ms. Strohacker said.

Her gesture embodies a voice that is not often heard in debates about the use of animals in biomedical research. These tend to be polarized between opponents of the research , who claim that it is unethical and the benefits are overstated, and proponents who argue that the benefits are enormous and justify the harms to animals.

The advancement of animal-free methods for developing drugs and testing product safety does raise the possibility that, at least in some cases, the use of animals can be avoided. But it will take years for that to happen, and few researchers think the use of animals will cease altogether. So long as animals are used, then, the question remains: What do people owe them? 

“The typical consideration is that if I plan the research well, have an important idea and respect the animals by housing them as carefully as I can and so on, then I’ve done my job in terms of the relationship,” said John Gluck, an emeritus professor of psychology at the University of New Mexico whose growing discomfort with his use of monkeys led him to become a bioethicist. “I think that is just poverty-stricken.”

Scientists often point to the so-called Three Rs , a set of principles first articulated in 1959 by William Russell, a sociologist, and Rex Burch, a microbiologist, to guide experimental research on animals. Researchers are encouraged to replace animals when alternatives are available, reduce the number of animals used and refine their use so as to minimize the infliction of pain and suffering.

These are unquestionably noble aims, ethicists note, but may seem insufficient when compared with the benefits derived from animals. Covid vaccines, for example, which were tested on mice and monkeys, and developed so quickly thanks to decades of animal-based work on mRNA vaccine technology, saved an estimated 20 million lives in their first year of use and earned tens of billions of dollars in revenues .

In light of that dynamic — which applies not only to Covid vaccines, but to many other human lifesaving, fortune-generating therapeutics — some wonder if a fourth R might be warranted: repayment.

Inklings of the idea of repayment can already be found in the research community, most visibly in laboratories that make arrangements for animals — primarily monkeys and other nonhuman primates — to be retired to sanctuaries . In the case of dogs and companion species, including rats , they are sometimes adopted as pets.

“It’s kind of karma,” said Laura Conour, the executive director of Laboratory Animal Resources at Princeton University, which has a retirement arrangement with the Peaceable Primate Sanctuary . “I feel like it balances it out a little bit.” The school has also adopted out guinea pigs, anole lizards and sugar gliders as pets to private citizens, and tries to help with their veterinary care.

Adoption is not an option for animals destined to be killed, however, which raises the question of how the debt can be repaid. Lesley Sharp, a medical anthropologist at Barnard College and author of “Animal Ethos: The Morality of Human-Animal Encounters in Experimental Lab Science,” noted that research labs sometimes create memorials for animals: commemorative plaques, bulletin boards with pictures and poems and informal gatherings in remembrance.

“There is this burden the animal has to carry for humans in the context of science,” Dr. Sharp said. “They require, I think, respect, and to be recognized and honored and mourned.”

She acknowledged that honoring sacrificed animals was not quite the same as giving something back to them. To imagine what that might entail, Dr. Sharp pointed to the practice of donating one’s organs after death. Transplant recipients often want to give something in return, “but the donor is dead,” Dr. Sharp said. “Then you need somebody who is a sort of proxy for them, and that proxy is the close surviving kin.”

If someone receives a cornea  or a heart from a pig — or funding to study those procedures — then they might pay for the care of another pig at a farmed animal sanctuary, Dr. Sharp proposed: “You’re going to have animals who stand in for the whole.”

A variation of that principle can be seen in children’s participation in possibly risky research, said Rebecca Walker, a bioethicist at the University of North Carolina. An ill child enrolled in a clinical trial for a still-unapproved drug may receive no personal benefit, but this is considered ethically acceptable because the research will benefit a larger community of children living with that condition.

“You’re contributing to the group, even if you’re not contributing to the individual,” Dr. Walker said. “That can be really relevant to the animal case.” For example, research on captive axolotls, a critically-endangered species of salamander, has yielded insights into breast cancer, spina bifida and tissue regeneration; in return, people might support efforts to help wild axolotls now struggling to survive in polluted canals in Mexico City.

For Lisa Genzel, a neuroscientist at Radboud University in the Netherlands, and Judith Homberg, her collaborator at the institution’s medical school, compensating research animals is best accomplished by giving those animals a far better life than the regulations require. “We try to give back to the individual animal,” Dr. Genzel said.

That means contemplating their lives and what matters to them, she said. Dr. Genzel and Dr. Homberg said they no longer use food restriction to motivate their rats to solve mazes. They also make sure the rats can socialize not only with one another but with humans, who play with them daily.

They would like to house their rats in larger, more naturalistic enclosures, or at least cages large enough to stand up in, but “it’s not an easy thing,” Dr. Genzel said. “First we have to get the financing. We don’t have the money.” The cost of replacing the cages in a single facility can quickly run to tens of thousands of euros — and that’s without considering the price of new cage-cleaning machines.

Giving something back to research animals would entail a cost. Some experts offered that a portion of drug revenues or research grants could be earmarked for this purpose.

“I’m surprised it hasn’t been done already,” said Prem Premsrirut, chief executive of Mirimus, a company that develops animal models for testing new therapeutics. “I think that for anything we do in science, we have to give to those who sacrifice, regardless of whether it’s human beings or animals.”

For many critics of animal research, this would still not go far enough. “What we really owe the animals is to legitimately replace their use,” said Aysha Akhtar, a neurologist and former medical officer with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration who co-founded the Center for Contemporary Sciences , which supports the development of animal-free, human-relevant medical research methods.

Dr. Akhtar has called for increased funding for such methods. Revenue and grant earmarks might be devoted to this aim as well. “If I could make some part of my lab associated with the development of alternatives — to me, that’s how I could really give back,” Dr. Gluck said.

As for Ms. Strohacker, she has received her Covid vaccine boosters and is thinking of making another donation, this time in gratitude for the animals involved in testing her birth control drugs.

“We’ve been conditioned not to think about the animals who are sacrificed for our health,” Ms. Strohacker said. “I don’t think the world is so pure that we’ll ever do no harm, but we could maybe be more thankful materially for the harm that we do.”

Explore the Animal Kingdom

A selection of quirky, intriguing and surprising discoveries about animal life..

When traditional conservation fails, science is using “assisted evolution” to give vulnerable wildlife a chance , while posing the question whether we should change species to save them?

Two periodical cicada broods are appearing in a 16-state area in the Midwest and Southeast for the first time in centuries. Can you get rid of them? Do they bite? We answer your questions .

Aside from chimps and humans, researchers have found clear evidence of menopause in only five species — all of them whales. A new study looks at the possible causes for it .

Scientists never imagined that the blind cave salamanders called olms willingly left their caves. Then, they discovered several at aboveground springs in northern Italy .

According to a common narrative that male mammals tend to be larger than female ones. A new study paints a more complex picture .

Daddy longlegs, the group of splendidly leggy arachnids also known as harvestmen, have been thought to have just two eyes. New research has uncovered four more vestigial ones .