Take out a piece of paper and a sharpened #2 pencil. Please read carefully the following story and answer all the questions. You have 15 min. One Saturday morning Dr. X was walking her dog thinking about some recent results in her field when it dawned on her that she might actually have the key … Continue reading Pop Quiz!
Category: Science News
How nerve cells reach their niche.
Developmental biology, the study of the processes through which organisms grow and develop, is an area of biomedical research where modal organisms - ranging from the slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum to the chicken - play a crucial role, and one that has been honoured with several Nobel Prizes in recent years. For example, the 1995 … Continue reading How nerve cells reach their niche.
Of Mice, Rice, Flies and Men
Animal rights activists often argue that animal models are irrelevant for human medicine, because they are ‘so different’ from us. But in fact some basics are shared across wildly distant species – something that the Nobel Committee acknowledged last year when they gave the Prize for Medicine and Physiology to Bruce Beutler and Jules Hoffmann … Continue reading Of Mice, Rice, Flies and Men
An Open Letter to the Laboratory Animal Veterinary Community and Research Institution Administration
The decades following passage of the U.S. Animal Welfare Act in the 1960s are marked with wide-ranging and significant changes to the administration, oversight, and responsibility for daily operations of institutions engaged in laboratory animal research. The intent of the legislation, and the central purpose of the accompanying and continuing changes, is to best ensure … Continue reading An Open Letter to the Laboratory Animal Veterinary Community and Research Institution Administration
Ignorance or Deception?
Animal rights activists may want to start cooling down their engines. Apparently, by 2050 we can expect the complete elimination of animal use in science. At least, this is the prediction made by Dr. Andrew Rowan, Chief Scientific Officer of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) in a recent article that appeared in … Continue reading Ignorance or Deception?
Merry Christmas for Patients with Hemophilia B
That was the headline of an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) which discussed the very promising results of a small clinical trial of gene therapy to treat hemophilia B – also known as Christmas Disease*. Patients with haemophilia B suffer bleeding in the joints and muscles due to deficiency in a … Continue reading Merry Christmas for Patients with Hemophilia B
Afterthoughts on IoM report on the use of chimps in scientific research
Thursday marked an important moment in the history of animal research. The long-anticipated report of a committee convened by the Institute of Medicine (IoM) to consider whether chimpanzee research is scientifically necessary released its report, quickly followed by a statement from Dr. Francis Collins, Director of NIH, the director accepting the committee's recommendations. The report … Continue reading Afterthoughts on IoM report on the use of chimps in scientific research
The end of cancer? A personal view.
My husband died of stage 4 metastatic esophageal cancer on August 19, 2011. I have been an advocate for biomedical research, specifically involving animals, for decades. I go to work each and every day supporting researchers involved with discovering new cures or treatments. I dedicate time outside of those duties to promote education regarding the … Continue reading The end of cancer? A personal view.
Speaking of Research 