Small Project and Travel Awards
Research towards replacing animals used in drug testing
Many thousands of laboratory animals are killed each year to obtain mandatory data on the toxicity and risk posed by the tens of thousands of new chemicals that enter the market. Where possible, in-vitro trials are used instead of whole, live animals. However, before in-vitro trials may be accepted by the research industry, much work needs to go into their development and validation. In 2014, with UFAW’s support, Diana Hall, a PhD student at the University of North Carolina, USA, travelled to the UK to meet and collaborate with scientists at Cambridge and Leicester Universities. Diana’s work involves researching methods to characterise developing neurons in culture to eventually replace similar testing in whole animals. She found that many neuronal endpoints were affected by the chosen set of test chemicals, which provides good evidence that the in-vitro assay may prove to be a viable alternative. It is hoped that in time this will lead to the replacement of live animals in this area of laboratory research.
