Source 1:
Animal Research – Queen Mary University of London
Website with introductory video and four sections with information about animal research at QMUL
Transcript: Animal Research at Queen Mary University
Length: 04:12
Speakers: Fraser Darling (Biological Services Manager); Mauro Perretti (Dean for Research); Reiss
Browning (Animal Technician); Jane Sosabowski (Imaging Scientist); Ian Mackenzie (Professor of
Stem Cell Science)
Fraser Darling: This is the animal research facility at Queen Mary University of London. We have a
wide variety of different species here that we use for biomedical research including laboratory rats
and mice, zebrafish and naked mole rats. The purpose is to enable researchers to perform
biomedical research and make medical advances in areas such as cancer research, heart disease and
transplantation medicine, but only where there is no non-animal alternative available.
Mauro Perretti: So animal testing is necessary to develop the new medicines of the future. In other
words, the diseases which affects our societies from obesity to diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular
diseases and so forth. These diseases needs new therapeutic strategies, new ways to treat the
patients. There are several examples where research conducted in this university, through also
animal testing, has had a clinical benefit for patients.
Reiss Browning: Every single day I have to come into this room and I've got to check every single
animal in every single one of these cages here. We do as much as we can, for example, the cage is
supplied with autoclaved bedding chew sticks and fun tunnels as well as the nesting material as well
and then what they do over the course of a week, they will manipulate the bedding into a suitable
nest that they're comfortable with, they will also manipulate the fun tunnels into one that they
prefer. I know that these mice are being looked after as best as I can and I'll do everything that I can
to make sure that they do have a stimulating environment just because I wouldn't be happy myself if
I was in a cage and I had nothing to do.
FD: One of the most important concepts for people using animals in research is this concept of the 3
R's. R for refinement, R for reduction and R for replacement.
Jane Sosabowski: At Queen Mary we're always looking for ways in which we can reduce the numbers
of animals that we use and also reduce the amount of suffering that they undergo. So one of the
ways that we can do this is using non-invasive animal imaging scanners, and these are brilliant
because you can collect information about an animal the biochemistry of the tumors and we can do
this in a way that doesn't harm the animal at all. Using this method we can use one animal and
image the animal non-invasively at five different time points and therefore we've reduced the
number of animals used. Using the same equipment we can also refine the methods that we use
because, for instance, we can see inside the animal, we can see how big the tumor is and we never
allow the tumors to reach a size at which the animal will be suffering.
Ian Mackenzie: The whole purpose of our investigation is to reduce the amount of animals that are
used for this research by providing substitutes. Many animals are used for cancer research but
recently the advances that we've made in the laboratory enable us to replace animals and yet get
cheaper more effective and more detailed information about cancer cells behavior. using our in vitro
techniques we've been able to show things that we were unable to show in animals. You can actually
see the response of individual cells to particular drugs and find out new ways of developing cures
which prevent the cancer growth.
FD: Animal welfare is very important to me as an individual and as a member of my organization.
Here at Queen Mary University of London we'll continue to make progress in animal research but we
will also continue to strive for the best possible welfare conditions for the animals within our care.
Four sections of the website:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Why we use animals in research
How we care for our animals
Alternatives and improvements
Regulation and ethics
Source 2:
Sanger & Knowles (2013) Cut down on animal testing by building a human tissue lab
Article in The Conversation about using human tissue as an alternative to animal testing (written by
two QMUL professors before the ARC was opened in 2016)
Gareth Sanger: Professor of Neuropharmacology (QMUL)
Charles Knowles: Clinical Professor of Surgical Research (QMUL)
Source 3:
Fighting cancer at the Animal Replacement Centre
Webpage with a video and short article about the ARC (Animal Replacement Centre)’s work with skin
cancer research. The ARC is part of a joint project between QMUL’s Blizard Institute and the Dr
Hadwen Trust.
Video transcript:
Cancer Research at the Animal Replacement Centre | Animal Free Research UK
Length: 03:52
Speakers: Prof. Mike Philpott (Scientific Expert in Cutaneous Biology); Dr. Gehad Youssef (Cancer
stem cell research scientist); Dr. Adrian Biddle (lecturer in animal replacement science); Dr.
Muhammad Rahman (Skin cancer research scientist)
Prof. Mike Philpott: The Animal Replacement Centre is a centre of excellence for replacing animals in
research. We're set up to develop human models of human disease which is the strap line that we've
used for our research and the aim very much has been to focus on developing human models of
basel cell carcinoma of the skin and also human head and neck cancer. My opinion has always been
that it's better to have a human model for a human disease and we work in a laboratory that has
developed and pioneered growing human skin cells and so to us it was obvious that the best way to
investigate this cancer, to understand what it's doing in human cells, is to actually mutate the
pathway in human cells, rather than a mouse.
Dr. Gehad Youssef: The Animal Replacement Centre is designed to focus on areas where animal
models are widely used and then to provide replacements for that, so for example, tumour invasion,
tumour metastasis and so what we do here in the centre is we try to model that in 3D, we try to
develop new techniques as well, to be able to one day offer to the scientific community a set of
resources that can replace the use of animal models.
Dr. Adrian Biddle: What we're doing now in the animal replacement centre is improving our models
so that they're more human relevant, so rather than just using these 2D dish models we are doing
now doing things where we're growing cells in a 3D matrix that mimics the environment inside a
person. We're also taking actual tumour specimens out of people so rather than these cancer cells
which are growing in dish, we're taking tumour specimens directly from people and we're doing two
things with those: one thing is is we're growing those a dish so they grow in 3D; and the other thing
we're doing is taking human tumour specimens that have been preserved and looking at those so
you actually get the architecture of the original tumour and comparing that to the types of cells
we're seeing in our cell lines. The idea is that by bringing together all these different animal
replacement models we will have a really strong body of work.
So mice in cancer research particularly, and that's the main animal we're replacing. What we want to
do is generate models which are actually showing human physiology there, they are mimicking the
human environment and the main advantages of animal replacement research are firstly that it's
much more reproducible than animal research and also much more controllable. You can control the
variables a lot like you can't do in an animal and you can also take very detailed measurements,
again in a way you can't really do in animals. That is exactly the sort of technique that we need to
build, to develop, in order to replace animal models, because this is, you know, going straight from
the human environment into the human-like environment in vitro.
Dr Muhammad Rahman: We're just leaving all the mouse behind now, that's like an old technology.
We're just moving ahead now and we're doing it so much faster and it's all controlled, the data is
much more clear and more valuable. And we can do many many experiments with 100 drugs,
whereas if you want to test 100 drugs you have to sacrifice a hundred of these mice.
Prof. Mike Philpott: The reason we use human models is basel cell carcinoma is a human skin cancer.
Human skin is very different to mouse skin and so mouse skin is very thick, it's covered in fur, it
doesn't have any sweat glands, the way it divides is different – it divides much quicker than human
cells, human skin and traditionally mouse skin is very quick to transform and form tumours, whereas
human cells do not want to form a tumour so it takes many more mutations to cause a human
cancer than it would a mouse cancer and so we just think that using human cells when we have
those human cells is the appropriate way to understand that cancer.