Yesterday the BBC News and Guardian Newspaper reported that a team led by surgeon Professor Robert Maclaren at the Oxford Eye Hospital had succeeded in using gene therapy to halt the decline in vision in six patients with the progressive eye disorder choroideremia. All six patients were taking part in a clinical trial, and what was … Continue reading Visionary Science: Gene therapy saves sight thanks to animal research
Addressing the crisis in transporting research animals
Articles in Nature ("Activists ground primate flights" and "Lab animal flights squeezed") and other publications have reported on campaigns by animal rights activists to convince airlines to cease transporting animals for research. Although these groups heralded their victories to supporters, an analysis of the facts indicates that the current animal transportation policies of passenger airlines … Continue reading Addressing the crisis in transporting research animals
Italian Researchers Threatened by Extremists
Italian research is in danger. Not only because of those seeking to twist the new EU Directive 60/3010/EU to their own agenda, but also because of a rise in extremism directed at the researchers themselves. Most recently, posters have appeared on the streets of Milan targeting specific scientists. It would appear that animal rights groups … Continue reading Italian Researchers Threatened by Extremists
Luke Steele: Profile of a Convicted Animal Rights Activist
The Anti-Vivisection Coalition (AVC), formed in August 2013, has been getting some press recently, campaigning against medical research at Cambridge University and Newcastle University. But in fact the "coalition" is little more than a one-man operation run by Luke Steele, twice imprisoned for attacks on laboratories and harassment and intimidation of lab workers. Steele began … Continue reading Luke Steele: Profile of a Convicted Animal Rights Activist
Canadians Support Animal Research
The Canadian Council on Animal Care is an autonomous and independent regulatory body that oversees the ethical use of animals in science within Canada. They are accountable to the Canadian public and are responsible for the dissemination of information on the use of animals in science to Canadians. In December 2013, the CCAC released poll … Continue reading Canadians Support Animal Research
Italians rally behind ill girl threatened by animal rights extremists: #Iostoconcaterina
2013 was a tough year for science in Italy, witnessing the theft by animal rights extremists of animals from a medical research laboratory in Milan and the passing by the Italian Parliament of a law that threatens the future of medical research in Italy. But it has also been the year when scientists in Italy … Continue reading Italians rally behind ill girl threatened by animal rights extremists: #Iostoconcaterina
Speaking of 2013: A year in summary
As another year for Speaking of Research has passed it seems only appropriate to spend a moment looking back.Animal research is important because of its contributions to human and animal health. In 2013 we saw a promising clinical trial for epidermolysis bullosa (EB), the development of pluripotent human stem cells from cloned human skin cells, … Continue reading Speaking of 2013: A year in summary
Cancer Immunotherapy: A breakthrough made through animal research
The prestigious journal Science has published its top 10 Breakthroughs of the Year 2013, and top of the list is a development that promises to have a huge impact on the lives of millions of people in the coming decades – Cancer Immunotherapy. The article focuses on three particular therapies that have recently shown great … Continue reading Cancer Immunotherapy: A breakthrough made through animal research
Speaking of Research 