Speaking of Research

I thought I’d dedicate an entire post to a certain statistic which has been repeatedly misused and misunderstood by animal rights groups.
92% of drugs that test successfully in animals fail during human trials
You will find animal rights organizations, such as PETA [...]

Filed under: Animal Rights News, News, Science News | Tagged: animal testing, vivisection, peta, statistics, 92%, FDA, clinical trials, safety testing, fail, safety | 1 Comment »

Americans for Medical Progress, whom Speaking of Research works side by side with, have just released a fantastic new DVD which looks at the impact of animal research on veterinary medicine.
The DVD follows four veterinarians; Marilyn Brown, Arnold Goldman, Lisa Portnoy and John Young, who lent their thoughts, hearts and voices in order to explore [...]

Filed under: News, Science News | Tagged: medicine, vaccine, dogs, veterinary, americans for medical progress, amp, speaking for research, vet, vets, valentine, young, beagle, HPV, COPV, papillomavirus, dvd | No Comments »

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an inherited disease that affects about one in every 4,000 males born in the USA. It is caused by mutations in the DMD gene that lead to the protein dystrophin being either absent or faulty, which leads to muscle cell death, progressive muscle wasting and early death, with few patients [...]

Filed under: News, Science News | Tagged: browne, dmd, duchenne, harvard, muscular dystrophy, paul browne, treatment | No Comments »

We are sorry to learn of the death of Dr. Michael DeBakey. DeBakey was a world-renowned heard surgeon who developed the roller pump, an essential component of the life-saving heart lung machine (used during Cardiopulmonary Bypass) which propels the blood through the tubing. His pioneering work in the field of cardiology later led him to [...]

Filed under: News, Science News | Tagged: cardiology, coronary, death, debakey, heart bypass, honor | No Comments »

Speaking of Research is going up in the world, having now made its way into the (joint) biggest Science Journal of them all (alongside Nature) - Science Magazine. You can download that SR article here. The article, in the Newsmakers section, puts Holder as this month’s “mover” - reporting on his efforts to bring the [...]

Filed under: News, SR News, SR in the Media | Tagged: arnold goldman, holder, interview, movers, newsmakers, science, science journal, science magazine, speaking of research, Tom Holder, veterinary | No Comments »

Peta (People for the Ethical Treatmet of Animals) and HSUS (Humane Society of the United States) are both trying to lay claim to the estate of the late Leona Helmsley, once dubbed the Queen of Mean. Helmsley’s fortune is estimated at $5-8 billion (around 3 times the combined incomes of everyone living in Zimbabwe).  Helmsley [...]

Filed under: Animal Rights News, News | Tagged: animal, dog, dogs, helmsley, hsus, leona, peta, rights, shelters, trouble, welfare | No Comments »

It seems Peta is running out of news lately - so its front page has decided to bring back the story of mistreatment of animals at Oregon National Primate Research Center - a story which turned out to be completely false when the USDA investigated. Want proof? Here’s the USDA report giving ONPRC a clean [...]

Filed under: Animal Rights News, News, SR News, Science News | Tagged: cruelty, mistreatment, monkeys, ohsu, onprc, Oregon, peta, primate, stress, USDA, youtube | No Comments »

I recently gave a speech at the International Conference for Animal Research Policy, in it I laid out three challenges for the upcoming months. We’ve all heard of the 3R’s, so this is the 3ES’s:
Enabling Scientists
Encouraging Students
Educating Schoolchildren
We must enable scientists by providing them with an outlet to talk about their work. In Britain animals [...]

Filed under: News, SR News, Science News | Tagged: challenges, debate, educating, enabling, encouraging, es, international conference, peta, school, schoolchildren, schools, scientists, students | No Comments »

A new website created by the RDS has been launched a couple of days ago. Animalresearch.info allows scientists to make their own contributions (subject to moderation) to add to the already vast repository of information on “the contribution of animal research to medical science“.
The website offers in-depth information on Nobel Prize winners, drug developments in [...]

Filed under: News, Science News | Tagged: animal research, animalresearch.info, contribute, documents, information, links, rds, website | No Comments »

In the news today there have been reports that laquinimod, a new drug developed to treat multiple sclerosis (MS), has performed well in an early (Phase IIb) (1). An MS patient’s immune system attacks their central nervous system, leading to impaired communication in the nervous system and finally to physical and cognitive disability. A key [...]

Filed under: News, Science News | Tagged: laquinimod, mice, MS, paul browne | No Comments »