Progress in Parkinson’s disease depends on Primate and other #AnimalResearch

February 24th 2021 Marina Emborg, MD PhD, Jeremy Bailoo, PhD and Doris Doudet, PhD Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s disease. The population prevalence of PD increases from about 1% at age 60 to 4% by age 80. From 1999 to 2017, the age-adjusted death rate for Parkinson disease … Continue reading Progress in Parkinson’s disease depends on Primate and other #AnimalResearch

#Evergreen: Opponents of animal research should refuse medical treatment

February 19th 2021 We are in the midst of a global pandemic—with  105.4 million cases and 2.3 million deaths since the start of the pandemic. Fortunately, due to decades of animal research on coronaviruses, various vaccine candidates were expedited, and their safety and efficacy profile evaluated in animals and humans. As a consequence two vaccines … Continue reading #Evergreen: Opponents of animal research should refuse medical treatment

Speaking of Research Year in Review 2020

December 31st 2020 This year has been a difficult one to say the least. Like many of you, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected all of us at Speaking of Research in major ways—with re-prioritization of time to child, elder and other care, the switch to online teaching and other major job related decisions, the experience … Continue reading Speaking of Research Year in Review 2020

2018 German Annual Use Statistics

In accordance with EU guidelines the Bundesministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft produces annual statistics showing the number of procedures on animals in German research. This includes many types of research including basic and translations studies, animal testing for safety, and the breeding of GM mouse lines. EU guidelines demand that all vertebrates and Cephalopoda be … Continue reading 2018 German Annual Use Statistics

US publishes 2018 animal use statistics

In 2018, US government statistics put the number of laboratory animals used in research at 780,070, an increase of 5.7% from 2017. This includes both public and private institutions. These statistics do not include all animals as most mice, rats, and fish are not covered by the Animal Welfare Act – though they are still … Continue reading US publishes 2018 animal use statistics

Animal models paved the way for Phase III testing of the COVID-19 vaccine

Yesterday, NIH and Moderna announced the start of a multi-site, Phase 3 clinical trial of a candidate vaccine for COVID-19. This candidate vaccine uses messenger RNA, or mRNA, a “codebook” that cellular machinery “reads” in order to build proteins. For this candidate vaccine, the mRNA contains instructions for building spike proteins found on the coronavirus, … Continue reading Animal models paved the way for Phase III testing of the COVID-19 vaccine

Statement in Support of the Global Research Community’s Efforts to End the COVID-19 Crisis

April 22nd 2020 The following joint statement is the result of a collaboration between several research advocacy organizations - including Speaking of Research - along with individual biomedical researchers, animal care experts, and university communicators. Research organizations are invited to share this statement by posting it on their own websites or linking to this webpage. … Continue reading Statement in Support of the Global Research Community’s Efforts to End the COVID-19 Crisis