As we close out another year, we can reflect on some very amazing progress in science and medicine without animals. I hope you had a chance to read CAARE’s recent article about using brain organoids to study cancer, which like so many other breakthroughs, is happening as doctors and scientists confront the failings of animal-based research.
In this newsletter, we look at two more examples of how microfluidic chips and 3D organoid models are transforming the way modern, animal-free medicine are helping patients today. “What these models are able to do is recreate a disease state,” explains Dr. Joseph Charest, director of the Human Organ Initiative at Draper’s Biomedical Solutions, and what makes them “much more predictive” than using animals.
CAARE works every day to pour through scientific and medical research to demonstrate that it is possible, and even essential, to overhaul our current failing system of medical research that is dependent on animals. This compelling information is hidden from the public, buried under traditional rhetoric about how animal research is essential for medical progress.
This is a hard myth to bust, sustained by a multibillion dollar global industry, but we are taking on the challenge. We know that if we can spread the truth about animal research, it will collapse under the weight of the truth. But only if the truth can get out.
This is a challenge that will take years and demand all the support and resources we can muster. We are immensely grateful to all of you who have donated to CAARE to sustain our efforts.
For the animals,
Barbara Stagno
President, CAARE
Mini Organs lead to breakthrough
in treating Cystic Fibrosis
Miniature organoids made from patient’s own intestinal cells are being used in the Netherlands to treat cystic fibrosis patients with rare mutations that make them resistant to essential drugs that control their disease. By creating a “mini-gut” made from the patient’s own cells, doctors can assess how the drugs work in the organoid before giving them to the patient.
The method is already being used successfully to find treatments for patients who were unresponsive to life-saving medications. Mini-guts have been grown for 450 cystic fibrosis patients, with the ambitious goal of growing mini-guts for every one of approximately 1,500 cystic fibrosis patients in the Netherlands. Dr. Hans Clevers, who developed the technique extols, “[The mini-guts] have everything you would expect to see in a real gut, only on a really small scale."
New chip tags aggressive cancer
cells for treatment
Scientists at the University of Michigan have developed a “labyrinth-on-a-chip” to identify the most aggressive cancer stem cells simply by examining a patient’s blood specimen. These cells, which are most likely to be involved in the cancer’s spread, are particularly difficult to isolate and label, accounting for one in a billion blood cells.
The labyrinth chip circulates the blood cells through a maze of specialized channels that can tag the aggressive cancer stem cells. Isolating these cells shows promise to customize treatments by precise molecular analysis. A current clinical trial is using the chip to isolate and analyze cancer cells in patients with an aggressive form of breast cancer.
Only three more days to reach our
5K goal to save cats!
CAARE is partnering with Global Giving, the world’s largest crowd funding community, in a challenge to raise $5,000 by the end of 2017. Money raised will go directly towards our campaign to end egregious cat brain experiments at SUNY College of Optometry which are killing and maiming helpless cats merely to create maps of neurons involved in visual processing.
When you donate to CAARE through Global Giving, CAARE will receive matching donations, incentives and bonuses commensurate with how much we raise. If we meet the $5,000 goal for 2017, CAARE will be accepted into Global Giving’s Accelerator Program for 2018, that will help us raise even more to sustain this campaign. It's time to end these horrific experiments that have inflicted immeasurable suffering on hundreds of cats and kittens for over 30 years!
CAARE is powered entirely by our supporters. If you have not yet donated for 2017, please consider making an end-of-the-year tax-deductible gift today. It may be worth more on your IRS returns this year due to the new tax laws for 2018.
Citizens for Alternatives to Animal Research & Experiments (CAARE), is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, established to highlight and promote research without animals.
Your donation helps us carry out our mission to speak up for animals in laboratories, and to end animal suffering by disseminating information about the power and progress of research without animals.
