-
Asked by anon-220256 on 5 Jun 2019. This question was also asked by anon-220106, anon-220442, anon-220433, anon-220963.
Question: Are any animals harmed through your research?
- Keywords:
-
Marianne King answered on 5 Jun 2019:
The research I do doesn’t involve any live animals or use any animal cells. One of the aims of our lab is develop methods of studying disease that try to reduce the animal use. I use human cells only! Another benefit to this is that anything we find in human cells probably more helpful than what we might see in animal cells. It’s more likely for example that a treatment that works on human cells will translate better to a whole human being, that a the likelihood of a treatment that works on a mouse cell translating to a human being. Some of the things that we feed cells with or stain cells with come from animals though. But again, this is something we try to reduce.
-
Ross Hill answered on 5 Jun 2019:
To successfully study rare human diseases in order to develop better treatments we really need good laboratory models, one such model is the mouse. But all animal work is done following strict government guidelines and only the most essential experiments are done in mice.
-
Nina Rzechorzek answered on 5 Jun 2019: last edited 11 Jun 2019 5:46 pm
Really important question – thanks for asking. The research I have done in the clinic makes use of data collected from patients after death, or analysis of data that was collected during routine diagnostic work-up and treatment, so no harm is caused to animals as a result of the research in this context. Most of the research I do in the lab uses human brain cells grown from stem cells so there is no direct harm to animals, however it’s important to understand that most biomedical research with cells involves the use of culture media supplements, antibodies, or other protein products that might have (at some point) involved the use of animals, although we are always working towards the reduction of animal use by figuring out how to make these things synthetically.
If I discover something in a cellular model system that could potentially lead to a completely new drug target or treatment, under current law, it would be necessary to demonstrate that a new mechanism or drug works in a non-human mammal (like a mouse) before it can be tested in a human, so the use of live animals is likely to be a part of this research for a while (until we can confirm that alternative model systems are better or at least as good). Of course, if I was testing a drug for veterinary patient use using veterinary patients (in a clinical trial), there is always the potential that this could cause harm, although we use all the research data and evidence available to us to reduce this risk as much as possible. (FYI even when treating patients with established drugs or techniques, there is always the risk of causing harm in some patients, and for some of them, the treatment approach may not even work).
One really exciting way of reducing the need for live animals in drug testing (which I hope to exploit), is to take advantage of drug repurposing i.e. testing drugs that have already been approved for human or veterinary patient use for a different condition to the one I would plan to test it for. Drug repurposing is potentially very valuable and cost-saving; many drugs make it through early human clinical trials (the ones that show the drug is safe), but fail at later stages to demonstrate that they effectively treat the condition of interest. As the drug development pipeline is so long and expensive that could be very wasteful of time, money, and human resources. However, if the drug is safe in humans (or veterinary patients) and happens to work really well to treat our condition of interest, we can potentially skip some of the clinical trials stages to speed up the process of getting this drug licensed to treat that condition in the clinic. This would also mean skipping the ‘pre-clinical trial’ phase which must test in non-human animals; in this way drug repurposing can greatly reduce the number of live animals used in research.
We are always working with the ‘3Rs’ in mind – i.e. to reduce, replace, or refine the use of live animals in research. This is something I am very passionate about and I can really apply my veterinary training to help with (and another reason why I am involved in biomedical research). Often people find it strange that a vet would tolerate the use of animals in research but without this, there is very little I could do for any of my veterinary patients. Every time I treat a cat, a dog (or any other animal) with a drug, that drug will have been tested in animals (and potentially also humans) which ultimately gives me the license to use it for that purpose. It is impossible to work as a vet without this.
Finally, there are very strict rules and regulations governing the use of animals in research in the UK. These rules are there to protect the welfare of the animals, and if they have to be used (where there is no alternative), researchers have to go through a rigorous application process to show that their planned experiments produce the highest quality data (with sufficient statistical power to answer the research question) whilst causing the minimum amount of stress or harm to animals. Ethics committees can (and do) prevent research being conducted that does not meet these requirements. Facilities that use animals for research are also regularly inspected to ensure they are adhering to the highest standards of animal welfare. Having directly witnessed the welfare issues affecting pet animals and farmed animals, and seen how well research animals are cared for, I am reassured that the system is working. But we always need to keep reducing, replacing, and refining, and I am confident that one day we will get so good at creating model systems in the lab, it will no longer be necessary to use live animals in research.
Here’s some more info about the use of animals in research at our institution:
-
Rebecca Moon answered on 5 Jun 2019:
My research doesn’t involve any live animals, unless you consider real live humans to be animals! My studies involve volunteers who have agreed to take part in the studies. Some are completely healthy children and young people, other studies involve children with a particular illness so we can understand how their illness affects their bones and fat. My studies typically involve taking measurements of their height and weight and doing scans to look at their bones. These scans dont hurt , just involve lying still. If the participants agree we take blood too. Most people dont find this painful, but we also use numbing cream so they dont feel it. So no humans are harmed during my studies either!
-
-
Rachel Hardy answered on 5 Jun 2019:
I think that this is a really important question, as this is still a hotly debated topic! The answer is yes, for my research. Up until recently, I used human cells taken from a brain tumour as a model for my research. These cells originate from a human brain, and grow/divide extremely quickly. This means that I always have lots of cells available for my experiments. I can also gain an initial idea of how my drugs of interest damage the brain. However, we must remember that these cells are taken from a human tumour (meaning that they are of cancerous origin). This means that the DNA of these cells is scrambled, with genes coding for different proteins to those found in healthy cells (these are known as mutant proteins). Therefore, there is only so much information that scientists can reliably gain from using tumour cells for research experiments.
So, I am currently using cells taken from mouse brains (these brain cells are called neurons). Although the mouse brain is clearly still different to the human brain (being much smaller for a start!), it provides a much better model for my research. Results achieved when using mouse neurons are much more likely to be similar to what would happen in the human brain, compared to human tumour cells. Unfortunately, mice must be sacrificed in order for me to be able to get these mouse neurons to work with. However, this will hopefully help lead to the design of better treatments that will help to stop the suffering of patients eventually. I don’t take the use of animals in my research lightly, and am respectful of where these neurons have come from.
Currently in the UK, all new drugs must be tested in animals before they can be sold to humans. This is because we cannot predict from cells alone how safe or effective a drug will be in humans. I think animals will always play a part in scientific research – however their use is highly regulated by the government, and a great effort is being made to reduce, refine or replace the use of animals in research wherever possible. This idea is known as ‘the 3 R’s’ – you can read more about this here if interested :
For example, animals are always treated very well while in research labs (e.g.by using big pens for them to live), and machines such as computers are being tested for their use in replacing animals (e.g. by using programmes to predict the safety of a drug based on it’s chemical structure, rather than using animals).
I hope this helps to answer your question 🙂
-
Shonna Johnston answered on 6 Jun 2019:
My own work doesn’t involve animals at all but the samples that are brought to me are often from animals but not all of the samples taken are harmful. Some of the samples are from biopsies; from cancerous tissue that has been removed during operations to save the animals and some are post-mortem where the animal has died of natural causes.
-
David Wilson answered on 6 Jun 2019:
This is a really important topic in science. Let me first say that the UK has some of the strictest laws in the world on the use of animals in science. Scientists who use animals are registered with the government and we are constantly checked to make sure we are working to the highest standards. We work with vets to design our experiments to make sure we only use the minimum numbers of the most appropriate animal for our work and that the animals health and welfare are one of our top priorities. We should always be thinking about finding a suitable replacement for animals, reducing the animals we use and refining the techniques and experiments we do with animals. However, I don’t believe at the moment we can stop using them completely. Working with cells will only tell you about that one cell and as you know humans are made up of lots of different cells and organs that work together in an incredibly complex way. We need to have models of disease and methods that can replicate what happens in real life organisms and this is one reason we use animals. Personally, i have the utmost respect for the animals and their welfare I use and I want to take responsibility for their use in my work.
-
Matthew Bareford answered on 6 Jun 2019:
The research projects that I complete and am involved with do not use animals in any way, but there is some animal use within other projects involved within the department I am in..
-
Kate Timms answered on 6 Jun 2019:
I don’t use any animals at the moment, but I will be soon. We will be looking at obese mice and seeing what impact being diabetic during pregnancy has on the health of their pups as they grow up. We will also look at how the placentas of these mice might be different from those who don’t have diabetes. Nothing painful or harmful is done to these mice (unless you count giving them condensed milk which they LOVE but makes them obese!). We only look at their organs after they have died.
We make sure that we only use the minimum number of mice possible and that they are kept in really good conditions so that they have as happy life as they can do in captivity.
We can’t do experiments on pregnant women because that would not be ethical as it could affect their health or that of their baby. So we have to use mice to understand what might be going on in women with diabetes in pregnancy. Hopefully, this will eventually lead to a treatment which could help make women and their babies healthier! -
Anabel Martinez Lyons answered on 6 Jun 2019:
Thanks for your question – the short answer (sadly) is: ‘yes’, but the long answer hopefully explains the short answer! The long answer is: I study a group of rare diseases affecting children (mostly). The fact that this group of disorders is rare means large research and ‘big pharma’ companies have less invested interest in studying them and creating a treatment (both because the time and money they spend to research them could help many more people affected by chronic and widespread diseases like cancer, diabetes and heart disease, but also because a treatment would not make them much money in the long run – rare diseases are a worse financial investment for these companies that common diseases since they aren’t needed very often). Secondly, the fact that they mostly affect children means there’s very strict rules about tests on patients and taking biological samples so the information available to scientists regarding these diseases is limited. That brings me to the animals – I use animals (mice in particular) to copy a patient’s disease with the hope of understanding and then rescuing the problem at a cellular level. This means I must first create mice that have a disease, but the ultimate aim of my research is to then study and treat them! As Ross said in his comment, the guidelines in the UK for animal work are VERY tightly regulated (which I really like), so we use the lowest number of animals and the most mild techniques and methods we can to study and handle animals for research. Also, the data we generate is helping us better understand these disorders in a helpful/useful way for patients, their clinicians and the general scientific community (this information wouldn’t be possible from cells alone).
-
Ettie Unwin answered on 6 Jun 2019:
I don’t directly work with animals unless you count mosquitoes!
One of the numbers I put into my models is the number of bites a person gets from a mosquito in a period of time. This can be worked out by a person sitting in an area with malaria and sucking into a pot any mosquitoes that come a try and bite them!
-
James Streetley answered on 6 Jun 2019:
Yes, but not by me or anyone I work with. I generally work with proteins or viruses that were grown by cells in a dish, rather by needing to kill an animal to purify the protein from it. But, to keep those cells alive and healthy, we often need to add animal products. We buy these in from companies that manufacture chemicals for us, but it does mean that an animal somewhere was harmed, even to do experiments in a dish.
-
Thiloka Ratnaike answered on 6 Jun 2019:
No, my research does not involve animal models, this is an avenue of research I am unable to consider due to my religious beliefs. Luckily the system of research is versatile enough to allow you to choose the type of project you want to explore while considering your religious position on it throughout!
-
Comments