• Question: Do you experiment on animals?

    Asked by anon-170057 to Ben, Lizzie, Francis, Max, Sian on 8 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Ben Mulhearn

      Ben Mulhearn answered on 8 Mar 2018:

      I don’t personally do any experiments on animals, but people in my lab use mice. They are all usually very happy looking and are not in any pain or discomfort. In fact, there are laws in place against causing pain or discomfort to animals in research!

    • Photo: Francis Man

      Francis Man answered on 8 Mar 2018:

      Yes, I use mice sometimes. The rules are very strict about what we can do with them, and we have to take great care and only use them when we don’t have a better alternative. We are personally and legally responsible for their well-being.

    • Photo: Sian Richardson

      Sian Richardson answered on 8 Mar 2018:

      Not in my place of work. Previously our drug was sent off-site for animal testing, to allow it to be released on the market. However, as of this year the company has developed an assay that removes the use of animal testing in its product. Which means our product can now use a cell-based assay to detect if the batch is safe to release for human use.

    • Photo: Lizzie Wright

      Lizzie Wright answered on 8 Mar 2018:

      I used to use pigs in my research. This is because we were testing treatments for heart disease and pigs have the most similar heart and vasculature to humans. We have a principle in science called the three Rs (refine, reduce and replace), whereby we try to minimise any work done on animals and replace with things like computer modelling if possible.

      All the animals experiments are very strictly regulated by law and we are very highly trained, so the animals are very well cared for. Without these experiments, we would struggle to develop treatments for human disease.

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