Animal research
Wake up and smell the … curry?
Professor Roger Bick MMedEd MBS is a researcher in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Texas. Every time I walk past an Indian restaurant my nasal passages expand, my salivary glands produce more saliva and I look to see if I have enough time to scarf down some tandoori chicken. … Continue reading
Action for Brain Injury Week
By Lauren Hoskin, intern at the Society of Biology This week, 13th-19th May, a campaign is being launched to highlight the hidden aspects of brain injury and help with the correct diagnosis of these potentially terminal conditions. The campaign is part of Action for Brain Injury (ABI) week, organised by Headway. Brain injury is an … Continue reading
Lung-on-a-chip
In the news this week has been an interesting approach to replicating human disease in a ‘lung-on-a-chip’ device. The lung-on-a-chip, which is about the size of a USB stick, contains hollow channels lined with living human cells. Applying a vacuum to two channels along the side of the chip allows it to recreate the way … Continue reading
Science Action Network needs you!
Tom Holder works for Understanding Animal Research and is running a campaign to encourage scientists to respond to misinformation about animal research Pop quiz: Question: An animal rights group accuses researchers of cruel practises in animal labs, further pointing out that it could all be done on computers anyway. Is this True or False? The … Continue reading
Marmosets and research into Parkinson’s Disease
A fascinating video of a Parkinson’s sufferer’s visit to an animal research facility. The video was produced by Richard Scrase from Understanding Animal Research, and here is his insight into its making:
A colour change for laboratory mice
Mice are the most widely-studied mammalian model organism, but not all lab mice are alike. Most varieties, or strains, of mice used in science originate from mice kept as pets by enthusiasts at the end of the 19th century. Scientists in many fields such as immunology prefer to work using a strain called C57BL/6 (known … Continue reading
Reducing animals in research
Along with colleagues at the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, I recently developed a new method to reduce the number of animals needed by 95%. Our discovery won us a ‘Highly Commended’ award from the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs). This annual prize is for the scientific … Continue reading