Stems Cells and Robotics Speed Transition from Animal Testing
Alternatives to Animal Testing, Experimentation and Dissection - An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Physicians Committee
November 2016

Improving human health research by transitioning from animal experiments to stem cells, robotics, and other high-tech methods was on the agenda when Physicians Committee senior science policy specialist Elizabeth Baker, Esq., met with the National Institutes of Health this last month.

Baker met with Ilyas Singeç, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Stem Cell Translation Laboratory at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), a division of NIH established to develop innovations to reduce, remove, or bypass costly and time-consuming bottlenecks—such as animal testing—in research to get new treatments and cures for disease to patients more quickly.

Dr. Singeç and Baker discussed NCATS’ work with induced pluripotent stem cells—cells derived from human adults to test drugs or study disease—as well as the potential for future collaboration.

Baker also received a tour of the Stem Cell Translation Laboratory and was able to see NCATS technology at work, including a Tox21 high-speed robot screening system that works around the clock to effectively predict—without using animals—how chemicals will affect human health and the environment.


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