118th Congressional Session Aims to Protect Dogs Used in Research
Beagles made headlines in 2022 when 4000 of them were rescued from the Envigo breeding and research facility. The facility was found to have dozens of violations of federal regulations. Envigo and other facilities like it work with pharmaceutical and biotech industries to breed, sell, and transport animals like dogs for animal experimentation. While it […]
New Acronym Mayhem (NAM): Why we need a consistent definition of NAMs
NAMs is a common acronym used to represent human biology-based methods in biomedical research. This acronym often refers to human-relevant testing methods like organ chips, organoids, and in silico models, but sometimes can include methods that are not human-relevant, but play a role in reducing the use of animals in testing. In the United States, […]
Revolutionizing Drug R&D with Human-Relevant Methodologies & Artificial Intelligence
In the United States alone, COVID-19 erased two decades of life expectancy growth. The U.S. also ranks lowest in life expectancy for both men and women among countries with high GDP per capita. With a 90-95% average failure rate for drug candidates in the U.S., a 10-15 year average timeline for a drug to receive […]
A Call for More Human-Relevant Research at NIH
For decades, animal experimentation was considered the “gold standard” of biomedical research, but today a growing number of well-known scientists and researchers begin to challenge that assumption. It is clear that the underlying molecular, cellular, and physiological mechanisms of animals being distinct from humans can lead to poor predictions in humans. This unreliability is the […]
Horror Movies and Zoonotic Disease: What’s the Connection?
In the wake of a global pandemic, Dystopian films depicting rampant disease leading to the end of the world take on a new patina of realism. The horror narrative that includes zombies, quarantines, and even the farming of humans for consumption as told through books, movies, and even video games remain timeless and successful. Despite […]
Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics Summer School: Animals, Scholarship, and Zombies?
The Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics held its Eighth Annual Oxford Animal Ethics Summer School in early August. This year’s theme was Animals and the Media: Communicating Ethical Perspectives on Animals. Merton College at the University of Oxford provided the perfect environment for scholars from all over the globe to meet, learn, and discuss ethical […]
What We Are Made For: A Contemporary Take on Barbie
Unless you live under a rock, you’ve probably seen or at least heard about Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig. Love it or hate it, Barbie is the highest grossing film directed solely by a woman, coming in at $1.28 billion worldwide to date. The hype was real. I could write a tome on the clever […]
Organoids, Digital Twins, and the Law: A Case for Alternatives to Animal Testing
CEO and Co-founder of the Center for Contemporary Sciences, Dr. Aysha Akhtar M.D., M.P.H., was interviewed by Dr. Erika Gebel Berg Ph.D., Director and Science Editor of the Science Custom Publishing Group. This podcast interview was originally broadcasted and transcribed by the Science Podcast. The conversation included context around the historic achievement of the FDA […]
The Public Health and Animal Protection Connection
COVID-19 changed lives. We lost loved ones and missed out on moments like weddings and graduations. Since March 2020, the term “once in a lifetime” to describe the public health event has been used more than once. But the stark reality is that for many of us, it will not be once in a lifetime. […]
A Review of Human Disease Models in Drug Development
In the article Human disease models in drug development published in Nature, the authors delve into the critical role of human disease models in drug development, emphasizing the importance of bridging the gap between bench and bedside. They shed light on the challenges and opportunities associated with leveraging human disease models to accelerate the discovery […]
The Milieu of Zuzalu
The sun began its slow descent into the Adriatic Sea when we arrived in Montenegro on May 2, 2023. Picture a 2-month long (non) Burning Man off the glittering coast celebrated by futurists in the fields of longevity, cryptocurrency, AI, and The Network State. That was the phenomenon that was Zuzalu. Originally conceived by Vitalik […]
Medical Countermeasures: More Potential for the FDA Modernization Act
In December 2022, the FDA Modernization Act 2.0 was passed by Congress as part of the FY2023 Omnibus bill. The FDA Modernization Act updated the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act (FFDCA) by lifting the requirement for animal testing and allowing applicants for market approval for a new drug to use the best methods available […]
What If We Could Do Clinical Trials Before We Do Clinical Trials?
Originally appeared in Clinical Leader: Alternatives To Animal Testing In Preclinical Research (clinicalleader.com) I’m a doctor, but I hate wearing my car seat belt. And it’s not for the reason you might think. Rather than comfortably crossing over my shoulder as it’s intended, the seat belt agonizingly crosses right over the most tender spot in […]
The Role of Animal Experimentation in Endangering Species
On May 19th we celebrated Endangered Species Day, dedicated to learning about and taking action to protect endangered and threatened species. 2023 also marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark Endangered Species Act—a silver lining in the face of a sixth mass extinction. The Endangered Species Act (ESA): Establishes protections for wildlife (including fish) and […]
The Animal Welfare Act Protects Animals, Right?
Few federal laws are considered household names. One of these is the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). The AWA was the first United States federal law to regulate animals used in research. The law was initially called the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act (1966) and was enacted to combat theft of pets to be sold into research. […]