• Question: do you get to experement on people ? like the way you do wiff animals xx ?xx

    Asked by sophiew2771 to MarkF, Mark, Michael, Panos, Sarah on 15 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Mark Travis

      Mark Travis answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      We do carry out experiments using humans- mostly getting cells from humans to test in the lab. Some cells are from patients who have sadly passed away, others are from people who are undergoing routine tests in hospitals and have blood/tissue taken that we can have a bit of to get cells from).

      But don’t worry! Everything we do is approved ethically so there is no unecessary harm or suffereing to anyone involved!

    • Photo: Panos Soultanas

      Panos Soultanas answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      Sophie,

      No experiments on people are not allowed unless someone volunteers. Even then there are very strict conditions and safety regulations that one has to satisfy before proceeding with tests on volunteers.
      Experimenting with animals is not something that all scientists do. It is actually quite rare. Again the regulations are very strict and it must be absolutely necessary to experiment on animals otherwise one will not be able to obtain a licence to do so. Only in such situations and under the strictests possible safety and control regulations one could do experiments on animals as a last resort in the absence of other experimental models to assess how effective and safe a drug is.

    • Photo: Michael Loughlin

      Michael Loughlin answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      I do not experiment on animals or people
      often in making new medicines and drugs trials can be carried out on animals and then a group of people to check for sideeffects and if it works…
      In research some experiements are carried out on animals, but it is tightly controlled, you have to prove to a council of scientists that it is worth using animals in the work, and pass tests to prove you are caring for and treating them correctly

    • Photo: Mark Fogg

      Mark Fogg answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      No we don’t, it’s not legal or ethical to test new drugs on humans unless under special controlled circumstances. It’s very sad, but testing medicines on animals is a legal requirement.

      Animal bodies, including humans, are very complicated, they’re made up of many chemical interactions that we don’t yet fully understand. We can’t predict easily how a medicine will react once inside a body. Medicines have to be safe before they are given to humans, that’s why they’re tested on animals. If people are really bothered by it, I think they should have every right to refuse a treatment that has been tested on an animal.
      I prefer to take medicine that I know is as safe as possible before it gets inside me, and especially before my little daughter takes something. I also want to know it’s highly likely to work and make me well again. It will be better when we’ve finally found a way to predict the internal workings of our bodies, and we’ll be able to simulate the effects of drugs using computers, only then will the lab rats be safe. The more research done on how bodies work, the sooner that day will come.

      However, I think testing cosmetics on animals is completely unnecessary. If someone wants to paint their face they should volunteer to be tested on, as it’s only for their own vanity in probably 99% of cases. I don’t expect to be trampled in the rush with people volunteering for that.

    • Photo: Sarah Burl

      Sarah Burl answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      All my work is with humans and not animals. Of course this limits the work that can be done – you can’t inject a bug and see what happens and you can’t chop up the human to see how the bug effected the body which is why we need to do these things in animals first to give us an understanding of how it is likely to work in humans. When testing a new drug or vaccine on humans there are many, many forms that have to be filled out and the project proposal has to go through many committees to assess the ethics of the work before you start. This can take many months before you are allowed to test the drug/ vaccine. Most of my work is looking at work in the lab rather than testing vaccines on the infants so I take blood from the infant then test other things on the blood and look at how the cells react therefore the human subject is just donating blood. However there are many new vaccine trials that are taking place in The Gambia just now including vaccines for malaria and HIV. These are important vaccines that need to be tested in humans to know if they work. The first phase of the trial will be to test a small dose and look for safety then test a larger number of people and different doses and then the third phase of the trial will be to test a large number of people to check it really works. It takes avery long time to make things safe for humans.

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