Lab animal alternative yields major discovery

By Guest Column Israel21c —— Bio and Archives September 2, 2015

Comments | Print This | Subscribe | Email Us

Israeli scientists recently made history when they built a bionic liver and it revealed new insights about toxicity in a common pain reliever. This invention could be the solution sought by both scientists and animal-welfare activists seeking to put an end to live animal testing.

Due to consumer demands for “cruelty-free” products, new regulations (especially in Europe) are restricting the use of live animals in product safety tests. And scientists are increasingly concerned that animal studies do not accurately predict the human response to a beauty product or pharmaceutical, especially one that is used on a regular basis. Using human cells for safety testing is not practical because the cells die after a few days outside the body. To address this challenge, scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology in Germany have created a liver-on-chip device mimicking human physiology. They call it a 3D micro-reactor, or in less scientific terminology, a bionic liver. More...