UK Charities Explaining Animal Research

Following from our previous post on US charities explaining their animal research, we will now take a look at UK charities using the same criteria. Of the UK top 200 charities (by income in 2012), only seven conduct animal research. Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Wellcome Trust British Heart Foundation (BHF) Alzheimer’s Society Arthritis Research UK … Continue reading UK Charities Explaining Animal Research

So, what can a growing fly teach us about skin cancer?

Back in April we welcomed launch of the Golden Goose Awards , an annual prize awarded to honor federally funded research  “whose work may once have been viewed as unusual, odd, or obscure, but has produced important discoveries benefiting society in significant ways.”. The Golden Goose award was developed in response to attacks on basic research … Continue reading So, what can a growing fly teach us about skin cancer?

What GM mice can tell us about pancreatic cancer (and medical charities)

I've written on the growing importance of genetically modified (GM) mice in cancer research before, but it's been a little while since I revisited the subject. So when I saw this BBC story yesterday on how scientists at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute has used an elegant study in GM mice to identify a gene … Continue reading What GM mice can tell us about pancreatic cancer (and medical charities)

Confronting AR Accusations at a Local and National Level

Charities are regularly targeted by animal rights groups. Currently Animal Aid have been targeting some of the UKs biggest medical research charities including the British Heart Foundation (strong proponents of animal-based research), Cancer Research UK, Alzheimer's Society and Parkinson's UK. It was refreshing to see these charities responding to this national press by providing comments … Continue reading Confronting AR Accusations at a Local and National Level

Honoring a fallen hero in the struggle against Cystic Fibrosis and AR extremism

Yesterday I learned some sad news via the Understanding Animal Research blog, that a young woman named Laura Cowell had died, succumbing to cystic fibrosis at the age of just 25.  To see a life so full of promise end so prematurely is always sad, but what makes this death so gutting is that Laura … Continue reading Honoring a fallen hero in the struggle against Cystic Fibrosis and AR extremism

Mice help identify promising prostate cancer treatment

Prostate cancer is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year, so the news today that in a clinical trial of more than 1,000 men a new drug named abiraterone acetate prolonged the lives of patients with advanced prostate cancer in a by an average of four months has been greeted with considerable excitement. … Continue reading Mice help identify promising prostate cancer treatment