• Question: Why do u test medicine on mice

    Asked by Sam2003k to Zena, Jared, Isabel, Ian, Frank on 10 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Zena Hadjivasiliou

      Zena Hadjivasiliou answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      When new medication is being developed we don’t know what its effects will be on our health. Will it help improve or cure the targeted disease? Will it have any serious side effects? Before we feel ready to test the new medication on humans we test its effects on mice, which although massively different to humans, have some genetic similarities to us that allow us to run some useful tests. We try to do this in the most ethical way possible, making sure that the process is as painless as possible for the animals.

    • Photo: Isabel Pires

      Isabel Pires answered on 10 Mar 2015:

      Basic biologists such as myself use several simple models to test new medicines, from human cells grown on petri dishes to 3D balls of cells called spheroids (both of which I use in my lab), or even yeast and bacteria.
      However, this can only provide so much information. For a medicine to be taken forward to clinical trials and used in people, it has to be tested to check whether it is potentially toxic, has nasty side effects, and how well it actually works. This can only be done in whole organisms such as mice. They are more complex than yeast and cancer cell lines in a petri dish, and represent better how a person would respond. These types of studies are very well regulated and controlled, only done when they absolutely have to be, and in the most ethical way possible.
      There is quite a lot of research going on trying to find alternatives. Unfortunately at the moment, for those very specific applications and only after all other tests have been done, it is still the best option biomedical science has before a drug can be given to people.

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