• Question: If you don't test your medicines on animals, what do you test them on?:)

    Asked by scarlett to Laura, Asif, Lena, Sean, Viv on 13 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by macklev2, meganh, fionamees, briannearcher, abutler, emilymorris, lillygrass, wonderwomen.
    • Photo: Laura Waters

      Laura Waters answered on 12 Mar 2012:

      Loads of new options are emerging. We can use computer simulations to predict how a new drug will react. We can test on human volunteers quite safely as they are given very low doses that have no side effects. We can use chemical mimics, which is what my research group uses or we can use human cells in a laboratory.
      Lots of choices that have better results at predicting how new medicines will work compared with animal testing results.

    • Photo: Sean Murphy

      Sean Murphy answered on 13 Mar 2012:

      Our laboratory is currently developing miniature organ systems for testing drugs. To do this we generate a scaffold or skeleton of a miniature organ (say a liver) and use the scaffold to grow human stem cells, which eventually form a miniature functional liver. In the future we will be able test drugs on these miniature organs and get results similar to if we tested the drugs on humans. Have a look at this news article about the miniature livers. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11654943

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