Chip That Imitates Human Organs Could Replace Animal Testing |
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Little plastic chip, not bigger than thumb, could be the end of animal testing!
This is good news for almost 115 million rabbits, guinea pigs, mice, rats, dogs, monkeys, fishes, birds and other animals who are being tested and placed in laboratories and institutes all over the world.
According to Human Society International (International organization for animal protection) every year around 100 million animals are killed in laboratories where they are used for sometimes very cruel research and experiments.
This new technology called “chip organs” developed by scientist at the Harvard Wyss Institute for Biological Inspired Engineering could be a turning point in modern science.
This technology imitates biological processes in human body, particularly in specific organ, and gives the scientists a possibility to access them.
Every chip, which is the size of a razor, contains micro fluid tubes that contain human cells.
Exactly as in real human organs, air, blood and bacteria travel through them, creating new biological processes.
This allows the scientist to track them in real time, step by step, and see how a particular organ reacts to a disease and also to a potential drug.
Don Ingber from Wyss Institute emphasized in the media that this type of technology allows scientists to see mechanisms and processes that were never seen before.
We have an open window to the activities in human body that happen on molecular level. It allows us to track the processes that are happening in the human body, in human cells. They are not inherent for animals, who were tested so far for those purposes. - D. Ingber
This small chip which will be used at first for examining lungs, can be used in the future for researching other organs.
Scientist will be able to examine heart, intestine, kidneys and other organs, digestion system and cardiovascular system.
Animal testing – Inhuman and Inaccurate
The chip will provide for faster, cheaper and accurate testing of medications and cosmetic products for clinical trials on people and it will end the burden of testing that is now carried by animals all over the world.
Testing can sometimes be very cruel, painful and unnecessary. It has been proved to be inaccurate and incomplete.
Activists and scientists as well, point out the fact that human and animal symptoms that are trying to be “cured” or tested in laboratories cannot be equaled.
According to Human Society International 9 of 10 medications that were successful on animals (after animals were induced with diseases and injuries) have failed in clinical trials on humans.
The reason for this is very simple – animals and humans are not the same therefore symptoms, progress of the disease, and the response to medical treatment differ.
This is why there is a need for alternative, humane and more accurate methods of testing.
New chip, which is still being tested, is one of the possible solutions for that, brighter, future.
Sources used in writing this article:
[url=http://www.wyss.harvard.edu]http://www.wyss.harvard.edu[/url]
[url=http://www.mnn.com]http://www.mnn.com[/url]
[url=http://www.hsi.org]http://www.hsi.org[/url]
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