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Saving the Lab Rat
November 20th 2006 04:21
Saving the Lab Rat…
Lab animals are used in medical experiments for the development of research in science, but the ‘lab rat’ (which is usually a selectively bred brown rat) is probably the most common. These rats are frequently subjects of medical, psychological and other biological experiments and constitute an important ‘model organism’ of mammals. Their use in experiments leads to the imperative development of new medicines, cosmetics and pesticides. Lab rats are used because they grow so quickly and are easy to keep and breed in captivity. So if a researcher wanted to know something about the elderly brain he/she could do so in a rat within a few years, whereas in humans and other species they would have to wait for decades.
But now, European researchers say they can leave the rats be and run computer simulations on new drugs instead.
The ABC says that the virtual tests could be run using computer models that draw on a vast database of information about chemical compounds and it could also develop new compounds very quickly. Instead of mixing and matching different compounds in the lab, using a lot of time, resources and lab rats, the new chemical compound computer database known as Chemomentum could speed things up. And when models of chemical structures are altered, it can be analysed whether the changes can make it interact better or worse with a target.
Mathilde Romberg, a research fellow at the University of Ulster in the UK and one of the principal investigators on the Chemomentum project says says the user-friendly program should "help the chemical industry and European regulatory bodies evaluate the substances and assess related risks, with fewer and fewer animal tests."
So science isn’t as selfish and careless as some tree-huggers may believe. Chemomentum should be saving millions of vermin lives if it goes ahead.
Image part of Public Domain
Lab animals are used in medical experiments for the development of research in science, but the ‘lab rat’ (which is usually a selectively bred brown rat) is probably the most common. These rats are frequently subjects of medical, psychological and other biological experiments and constitute an important ‘model organism’ of mammals. Their use in experiments leads to the imperative development of new medicines, cosmetics and pesticides. Lab rats are used because they grow so quickly and are easy to keep and breed in captivity. So if a researcher wanted to know something about the elderly brain he/she could do so in a rat within a few years, whereas in humans and other species they would have to wait for decades.
But now, European researchers say they can leave the rats be and run computer simulations on new drugs instead.
The ABC says that the virtual tests could be run using computer models that draw on a vast database of information about chemical compounds and it could also develop new compounds very quickly. Instead of mixing and matching different compounds in the lab, using a lot of time, resources and lab rats, the new chemical compound computer database known as Chemomentum could speed things up. And when models of chemical structures are altered, it can be analysed whether the changes can make it interact better or worse with a target.
Mathilde Romberg, a research fellow at the University of Ulster in the UK and one of the principal investigators on the Chemomentum project says says the user-friendly program should "help the chemical industry and European regulatory bodies evaluate the substances and assess related risks, with fewer and fewer animal tests."
So science isn’t as selfish and careless as some tree-huggers may believe. Chemomentum should be saving millions of vermin lives if it goes ahead.
Image part of Public Domain
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