Newsletters

A new organ-on-a-chip has shown that it can supersede animals in radiation experiments that are not only extremely painful but have failed to produce effective measures to counter radiation exposure.

A new book: The Rise and Fall of Animal Experimentation: Empathy, Science and the Future of Research, by Richard J. Miller, PhD, discusses the role of animal experimentation in history and the current evidence that compels a shift away from cruel and flawed animal testing towards novel, human-based alternatives.

We are constantly bombarded with news of ineffective medical “breakthroughs” based on flawed and unethical animal experiments, the vast majority of which never pan out.

Today's newsletter reports on several interesting medical discoveries that actually deliver concrete information because they are based on sound and solid human findings and not animal experiments.

Scientific evidence continues to mount, proving that we can’t experiment on animals and get accurate results, but until recently researchers didn’t realize how all-encompassing that reality is. 

Chronic low back pain is a widespread problem that is difficult to treat. But rather than resort to outdated and confounded animal experiments, a team of researchers at the University of Sydney have developed a sophisticated disc-on-a-chip to replicate human disc pathophysiology. Using this model offers scientists the possibility to not only derive new treatments but to regenerate damaged discs.

Millions of dollars and thousands of experiments have forced animals to become drug dependent to study human addiction and its ramifications, but these experiments are cruel and overall inapplicable to the problem of human drug addiction.

In a new study out of Sweden, scientists studied addiction in human participants by examining endocannabinoid blood levels, believed to play a role in stress management.

After 40 plus years, it’s time for World Week for Animals in Laboratories to take on new meaning in the 21st Century, when science and technology are booming with methods to replace animals and growing daily.

While scores of vision experiments are carried out on animals, often monkeys, that involve restraining their heads and implanting eye coils, such experiments are unjustifiable.

This week we report on a team of scientists who studied human volunteers to gain new insights into human eye movements that would not have been obtained through inapplicable and cruel animal experiments.

Other exciting breakthroughs in nonanimal research include a heart organoid that replicates many features of the developing heart and an entirely human study that charted detailed processes on how the human brain forms memories.

While scientists have for years used mice, rats, monkeys and other animals in horrific brain experiments to try to derive explanations for the human craving for sweets, such experiments are unnecessary and inapplicable. In a new study, scientists used human volunteers and non-invasive brain imaging to investigate how sugar impacts the brain’s dopaminergic system.

Other recent advances in research without animals include a biomimetic model composed of human cells to study wounds and burns; human-derived cell cultures and skin explant models instead of infecting animals to reveal a possible new drug treatment for mpox; and using high resolution spectroscopy to gain important insights into treating deadly C. difficile infections.