Robots will replace laboratory animals

Inga Safronova, KP.RU

American scientists are taking the first steps towards making scientific experiments on testing chemicals cheaper, easier, more effective, and, most importantly, more humane. Two US government institutes have already begun research on a new technology that will help stop vivisection and replace laboratory animals with artificially grown cells.

The essence of this program is that scientists will test the effect of chemicals not on rabbits and mice, but on cells of various human organs grown in laboratory conditions. By tradition, all chemicals are tested on animals. In order to understand the effect of a particular toxin on the body, this substance is injected into the body of an experimental animal, and then changes in the state of its internal organs and the general cellular reaction are observed. The paradox is that since such tests are carried out only on animals, it is difficult to predict how the human body will react to the same drug.

In addition, these experiments take a lot of time, they are very expensive and time-consuming. Now, in order to get more correct information about the body's reaction to a particular substance, this substance will be tested directly on cells that will grow in the laboratory.

High-speed robots created as part of the human genome research project will participate in such tests, which will allow about 10 thousand analyses per day, the BBC reports.

For comparison, biologists using traditional white mice can put no more than 100 experiments on them per year. The details of this study are published in the journal Science and discussed at the conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), held annually in Boston.

According to Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, the new research method will be much more productive.

"Why would we use an entire animal if we can take individual cells of individual organs grown in the laboratory and vary the concentration of tested substances in them," Francis Collins said.

Laboratory tests of the new program will take five years. However, as the scientist suggested, it may take many years before the new method of testing drugs becomes widespread practice.

Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru18.02.2008