Animal testers seek alternative to rats
TROY, N.Y. -- The lab rat of the future may have no whiskers and no tail — or even be a rat at all.
With a European ban on animal testing for cosmetics looming, companies are giving a hard look at high-tech alternatives like the small, rectangular glass chip professor Jonathan Dordick holds up to the light in his lab at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
The chip looks like a standard microscope slide, but it holds hundreds of tiny white dots loaded with human cell cultures and enzymes. It's designed to mimic human reactions to potentially toxic chemical compounds, meaning critters like rats and mice may no longer need to be on the front line of tests for new blockbuster drugs or wrinkle creams.
Dordick and fellow chemical engineering professor Douglas Clark of the University of California, Berkeley lead a team of researchers planning to market the chip through their company, Solidus Biosciences, by next year. Hopes are high that the chip and other "in vitro" tests — literally, tests in glass — will provide cheaper, efficient alternatives to animal testing. No one expects the chips to totally replace animals just yet, but their ability to flag toxins could spare animals discomfort or death.
"At the end of the day, you have fewer animals being tested," said Dordick.
Medical advances ranging from polio vaccines to artificial heart valves owe a debt to anonymous legions of lab rats, mice, rabbits, dogs monkeys and pigs. Animals — mostly mice — are still routinely used to test the toxicity of chemical compounds. Taylor Bennett, senior science advisor to the National Association for Biomedical Researchers, said animal testing maintains an essential role in making sure new pharmaceutical products are safe and effective for humans.
Studies with animals are generally needed before the federal Food and Drug Administration will approve clinical trials for a drug.
"The technology is not yet there to go from idea to patient application without using animals," Bennett said.
Popular Reads
ABC News Live