“Darwin viewed animal testing as a necessary evil in the absence of viable alternatives. But this is beginning to change. Biotechnology innovations such as microfluidic chips, induced pluripotent stem cells, and 3D bioprinting are making it possible to grow human tissue for testing purposes, tailored to specific patient populations.

What’s more, shifting from animal testing is not only finally possible but may actually be required (if only in certain contexts). This year, both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced plans to reduce such testing. The FDA committed to making animal studies ‘the exception rather than the norm for pre-clinical safety/toxicity testing’ over the next 3-5 years…

As encouraging as this shift may be, its success hinges upon whether and how well these animal-free alternatives actually work. Their utility is likely to play out differently across biomedicine. In some areas of biomedical research, such as safety screenings for shampoos or laundry detergents, petri dishes of human cells are already sufficient to determine whether a chemical is harmful or beneficial.

But in others, such as the search for treatments for neurological diseases, even the most advanced tools cannot accurately recapitulate the complexity of a living body. To truly transform the massive animal research industry, we’ll need to be honest about NAMs’ limitations — and our own.”

From Asimov Press.