Alternatives to Research Requiring Rodents

Pathologies of the musculoskeletal system such as Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis affect the life quality of millions of patients every year. To develop novel efficient treatments we need first to test them in animal models such as mice. However, the differences between the physiologies of animals and humans make the translation of findings to clinics complex and slow. In this talk I will explain how the usage of computational models can help improve the design and assessment of new treatments and to refine, reduce and partially replace the use of animals in musculoskeletal research.

Introducing new drugs to the market takes many years and costs billions of pounds. Drugs reach patients only after multiple clinical trials and tests in animal models do not give the same results as in humans. Hence, there is a high demand for more reliable disease models that could replace animal testing, making drug development more effective and less costly. Organ-on-chip technology is the new approach! We are going to introduce you to the future world of personalised medicine and how this technique could change the way we test medicines.

Traditionally mice were used to understand diseases + find new treatments. Many researchers now use simpler models to help understand human diseases without harming mice or other mammals. These “model organisms” reduce mouse numbers used in research + in many ways are better models. Both fruit fly and zebrafish have transparent stages, where biological processes can be seen happening in live animals. Their small size also means we can use them to test thousands of drugs to treat certain aspects of disease. This could allow us to find new ways to treat human diseases.