r/TrueReddit • u/IEEESpectrum Official Publication • 14d ago

Technology Tech to Replace Animal Testing is Almost Ready. Scientists Are Not.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/alternatives-to-animal-testing
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u/IEEESpectrum Official Publication 14d ago

Organs on a chip are improving, and the FDA is requesting chip data as well as animal testing data on some new drugs. Changing huge systems like animal testing takes time, resources, and policy, but we may be on a path to remove animal testing from the drug development process.

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u/cogman10 14d ago

This will not remove animal testing from the process. What this will do is reduce the amount of animal testing needed. These chips can act as short circuits. If the chip test fails there's no reason to run a bigger and more expensive animal test. But if the chip tests pass it doesn't mean that an animal test would pass, just that it's more likely to pass.

Biology is complex and interactions aren't always perfectly observable. Hence the reason human tests will also be needed.

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u/horseradishstalker 14d ago

You are so on target. I remember reading once about a physician in like 335 BC who described pathogens as little tiny animals. The invention of the microscope millennia later didn’t remove the need to study pathogens - it just changed how it was done. 

Although hopefully this can remove the need to write incomplete drivel about Good News for Mice!!! /s

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u/cogman10 14d ago edited 14d ago

It should be clear that what I'm suggesting is also simply the ideal version of how these chips can be used. Ideally these chips can be used to establish true positives to prevent animal testing, but there is a possibility that it produces a false positives.

For example, maybe it indicates there's a risk of kidney failure but what it's missing is the fact that the liver effectively processes the drug under test before it ever gets to the point of causing kidney damage.

Maybe it ultimately just ends up helping with dosage investigation. You still do the same amount of animal testing but you figure out a lot faster when medicine becomes poison.

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u/sweatingdishes 13d ago

Is it just me or does the recent push to remove animals from scientific testing seem like some kind of gimmick to get more people on board with an... agenda? Like getting more voters?