Laboratory and Basic Science Research Commons^™

Non-Animal Methodologies Within Biomedical Research And Toxicity Testing, Andrew Knight

Andrew Knight, PhD

Laboratory animal models are limited by scientific constraints on human applicability, and increasing regulatory restrictions, driven by social concerns. Reliance on laboratory animals also incurs marked – and in some cases, prohibitive – logistical challenges, within high-throughput chemical testing programmes, such as those currently underway within Europe and the US. However, a range of non-animal methodologies is available within biomedical research and toxicity testing. These include: mechanisms to enhance the sharing and assessment of existing data prior to conducting further studies, and physicochemical evaluation and computerised modelling, including the use of structure-activity relationships and expert systems. Minimally-sentient animals from lower …

Interests And Harms In Primate Research, Nathan Nobis

Nathan M. Nobis, PhD

The article discusses the moral issues on primate research in reference to the moral defenses by Sughrue and colleagues. It states that Sughrue and colleagues have claimed to provide equal examination of the primate stroke research's ethics. It mentions that the promise to straighten out a number of ethical arguments in favor and against primate research was not fulfilled. Several moral arguments are presented in response to Sughrue and colleagues' moral defense for animal experimentation.

The Three Rs: The Way Forward, Michael Balls, Alan M. Goldberg, Julia H. Fentem, Caren L. Broadhead, Rex L. Burch, Michael F.W. Festing, John M. Frazier, Coenraad F.M. Hendriksen, Margaret Jennings, Margot D.O. Van Der Kamp, David B. Morton, Andrew N. Rowan, Claire Russell, William M.S. Russell, Horst Spielmann, Martin Stephens, William S. Stokes, Donald W. Straughan, James D. Yager, Joanne Zurlo, Bert F.M. Van Zutphen

Andrew N. Rowan, DPhil

This is the report of the eleventh of a series of workshops organised by the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM), which was established in 1991 by the European Commission. ECVAM's main goal, as defined in 1993 by its Scientific Advisory Committee, is to promote the scientific and regulatory acceptance of alternative methods which are of importance to the biosciences and which reduce, refine or replace the use of laboratory animals. One of the first priorities set by ECVAM was the implementation of procedures which would enable it to become well-informed about the state-of-the-art of non-animal test …

Prolonged Pain Research In Mice: Trends In Reference To The 3rs, Jonathan Balcombe, Hope Ferdowsian, Lauren Briese

Jonathan Balcombe, PhD

This literature review documents trends in the use of mice in prolonged pain research, defined herein as research that subjects mice to a source of pain for at least 14 days. The total amount of prolonged pain research on mice has increased dramatically in the past decade for the 3 pain categories examined: neuropathic, inflammatory, and chronic pain. There has also been a significant rise in the number of prolonged mouse pain studies as a proportion of all mouse studies and of all mouse pain studies. The use of transgenic mice has also risen significantly in prolonged pain research, though …

Cancerous Contradictions: The Mis-Regulation Of Human Carcinogens Based On Animal Data, Andrew Knight, Jarrod Bailey, Jonathan Balcombe

Jonathan Balcombe, PhD

The regulation of human exposures to potential carcinogens constitutes society’s most important use of animal carcinogenicity data. However, for environmental contaminants of greatest U.S. concern, we found that in most cases (58.1%; 93/160) the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considered the animal data inadequate to support a classification of probable human carcinogen or noncarcinogen.

The World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is a leading international authority on carcinogenicity assessments. For chemicals lacking human exposure data (the great majority), IARC classifications of identical chemicals were significantly more conservative than EPA classifications (p

Non-Animal Methodologies Within Biomedical Research And Toxicity Testing, Andrew Knight

Experimentation Collection

Laboratory animal models are limited by scientific constraints on human applicability, and increasing regulatory restrictions, driven by social concerns. Reliance on laboratory animals also incurs marked – and in some cases, prohibitive – logistical challenges, within high-throughput chemical testing programmes, such as those currently underway within Europe and the US. However, a range of non-animal methodologies is available within biomedical research and toxicity testing. These include: mechanisms to enhance the sharing and assessment of existing data prior to conducting further studies, and physicochemical evaluation and computerised modelling, including the use of structure-activity relationships and expert systems. Minimally-sentient animals from lower …

The Three Rs: The Way Forward, Michael Balls, Alan M. Goldberg, Julia H. Fentem, Caren L. Broadhead, Rex L. Burch, Michael F.W. Festing, John M. Frazier, Coenraad F.M. Hendriksen, Margaret Jennings, Margot D.O. Van Der Kamp, David B. Morton, Andrew N. Rowan, Claire Russell, William M.S. Russell, Horst Spielmann, Martin Stephens, William S. Stokes, Donald W. Straughan, James D. Yager, Joanne Zurlo, Bert F.M. Van Zutphen

Experimentation Collection

This is the report of the eleventh of a series of workshops organised by the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM), which was established in 1991 by the European Commission. ECVAM's main goal, as defined in 1993 by its Scientific Advisory Committee, is to promote the scientific and regulatory acceptance of alternative methods which are of importance to the biosciences and which reduce, refine or replace the use of laboratory animals. One of the first priorities set by ECVAM was the implementation of procedures which would enable it to become well-informed about the state-of-the-art of non-animal test …

Alternatives To And Reduction Of Animal Use In Biomedical Research, Education And Testing, John M. Frazier, Alan M. Goldberg

Experimentation Collection

Biomedical endeavours can be divided into three major categories: research, education, and testing. Within the context of each of these categories, activities involving whole animals have made major contributions and will continue to do so in the future. However, with technological developments in the areas of biotechnology and computers, new methods are already reducing the use of whole animals in certain areas. This article discusses the general tissues of alternatives and then focuses on the development of new approaches to toxicity testing.

Alternatives To Aversive Procedures With Animals In The Psychology Teaching Setting, Jeffrey A. Kelly

Experimentation Collection

In this paper, we will consider the treatment of laboratory animals in psychology instruction and will focus on practical alternatives to traditional practices that cause pain and distress to animals. While the discussion will draw on psychology for examples, many of the issues apply equally to the instruction of students in other courses of study, including medicine, veterinary medicine, biology, and physiology.

The Imbalance Between Experiment And Theory In Biology: The Need For Theory-Directed Modeling, M. L. Fidelman, D. C. Mikulecky

Experimentation Collection

In biological and biomedical research, the vast majority of resources are focused on conducting experiments. Most of these experiments utilize animals. Only a tiny amount of resources is spent on theory and modeling. It is our contention and the basic theme of this paper that the imbalance between theory and experiment in biology produces very poor science. The implications of which are that many of the experiments conducted have little real scientific meaning or value and, therefore, go hand-in-hand with unnecessary animal use and suffering. Given the finite resources available for research, the redirection of significant resources from an almost …