More opinions
“Although investigation of brain connectivity using diffusion data cannot provide equivalent information to that obtained from tracer studies in non-human animals, the ability to investigate brain pathways in the human brain in vivo raises certain advantages. It is possible that inter-species differences may limit the degree to which connectivity patterns established in non-human animals will apply in the human brain. Development of techniques for interrogating in vivo human connectivity data raises the possibility of applying these techniques in clinical populations.”
Dr Heidi Johansen-Berg, FMRIB Centre, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford
“We think it is important to study human disease in human subjects. Too often animals are used to test the effects of biological mediator intervention but to date none of these approaches has had a significant impact on the treatment of fibrosing lung disease. The so-called ‘animal models’ of lung fibrosis do not reflect the pattern of disease in humans. Our policy has always been to study the human disease and the Trust’s funding policy is entirely consistent with our research approach.”
Dr Penny Lympany, National Heart & Lung Institute, Imperial College London
“We are investigating how some wounds, such as those in the mouth, heal in a scarless manner, whereas chronic wounds on the legs of aged individuals often fail to heal at all. Instead of animal experiments our group depends on the use of donated human tissues.”
Dr Phil Stephens, Cardiff Institute of Tissue Engineering & Repair, Cardiff University
“Certain features of our recent evolutionary past make humans quite different from other mammals. This limits the usefulness of other species as model organisms to answer a range of limited basic questions; whereas to understand the complex gene-gene and gene-environment interactions that influence human ageing, a combination of epidemiology and of powerful computers to model the interactions in a higher level may be more effective.”
Prof Tom Kirkwood, Professor of Medicine, Institute for Ageing and Health, Newcastle University
“It is important to stress that animals are inappropriate models for any nucleotide studies in humans. Animals have a totally different complement of nucleotide enzymes from those in comparable human cells. In our study, valuable information relating to uraemic toxicity was obtained solely from studies of red cell nucleotides in the blood of patients with renal failure and inborn errors of nucleotide metabolism. These studies in humans underline the importance of using human models and the useful information such studies can generate, thereby reducing animal experiments.”
Dr Anne Simmonds, Purine Research Unit, Guy’s Hospital London
“There is a need to develop complex multicellular three-dimensional human models to accurately reflect the in vivo situation and provide a viable alternative to the use of animal models for study. As well as replacing the use of animals, such models are likely to be superior to animal models because they more closely represent human disease and recapitulate complex intercellular interactions.”
Prof Louise J Jones, Professor of Breast Pathology, Queen Mary’s School of Medicine & Dentistry, St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London
“It is right that we explore every possible avenue for the replacement of animals.”
Prof Vincent Walsh, Professor of Human Brain Research, University College London
“The Dr Hadwen Trust has been an excellent source of funding for human-based research, and is responsive to the needs and priorities of clinically-oriented neuroscientists. I think their support of such work is laudable and consonant with the Trust’s mission.”
Prof Edward Chronicle, Professor of Psychology, University of Hawaii
“The Dr Hadwen Trust supports cutting-edge research that focuses on non-animal approaches to studying human medical questions. By doing this the Trust plays an important role within the scientific community as it directly encourages researchers to include this approach as a strategy for studying their particular field of interest.”
Dr Jim Huggett, Centre for Infectious Diseases & International Health, University College London
“The liver is an important organ in drug metabolism and safety evaluation studies. Species differences are of particular concern when extrapolating animal data to humans. Although different animal models may mimic different aspects of drug metabolism and responses to test agents that might occur in humans, they cannot resemble the whole spectrum of human responses. Therefore, developing human in vitro models is a promising approach to address species differences encountered with the current regimen and to reduce and ultimately replace aspects of live animal testing.”
Wendy Purcell, Professor of Biomedical Sciences, University of Hertfordshire
“Animal models of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are not useful as they do not exhibit any of the cellular abnormalities observed in patients with COPD. …The only way we will learn more about the underlying pathophysiology of COPD will be to examine samples from human disease subjects and to compare them with samples taken from controls such as age-matched smokers without disease and non-smokers.”
Dr Louise E Donnelly, National Heart & Lung Institute, Imperial College London