For generations people have associated the terms “lab rat” and “guinea pig” with scientific research. Animal testing remains a standard and has been required for drug approval.
Just before Christmas, though, Congress ended the requirement that all new drugs must be tested in two species – usually mice and a “higher order” mammal like rabbits or primates – before being tried in people.
The change won’t stop animal testing overnight. Research tools and computer algorithms developed over the last 10 to 15 years still have gaps. And regulators won’t immediately change their decadeslong approach to proving safety and effectiveness.
Technology is “not there yet” to fully replace animal testing, [expert Rachael] Anatol said. But researchers can now take skin or blood cells from a patient with the disease of interest, grow the cells in a lab, and rapidly test hundreds of drugs to see if any can reverse whatever is going wrong.
Scientists are also developing “organoids” – mixing cell types from a particular organ, like the kidney, to mimic how a disease and drugs might affect it.
A similar technology called “organs on a chip” allows researchers to better represent the environment inside the body by mimicking the flow of blood past these organoids.
