The Environmental Protection Agency has scrapped a plan to phase out mammal tests to study chemical toxicity. Science reports. In 2019, the regulator pledged to completely end animal testing for toxicology research by 2035 in favor of non-animal “test subjects” programmed into computer models.
The call to challenge the status quo was controversial from the start – not only would it affect thousands of studies and experiments, but many scientists argued that computer models were not ready to replace animals as test subjects. One a letter has been written by a group of public health officials, experts urged EPA chief Michael Regan to reconsider the ban because computational models, they say, are “not yet advanced enough” to be trusted for risk assessments.
The EPA said it needed to in order for the new ban to go into effect “scientific belief” that non-animal models can replace animals such as mice and rabbits in laboratories. Despite the 2035 freeze, an EPA spokesman said Science said it would still explore alternatives to animal testing.
The ambitious plan is not a completely lost cause. While the EPA hasn’t made any official announcements on how it plans to work toward its original goal, now without a deadline, some studies have shown promise that computational models can effectively represent the toxicology of certain chemicals during testing. In some cases, these studies show that they can even outperform lab rats.
3D developments like technical organs It is also emerging on the research front through stem cells, which allow tricked livers to be tested and evaluated like human livers during research. Currently, laboratories are working on ways to develop real organs more effectively Using 3D printers. But it may be some time before 3D printing is consistently used to help biologists and pharmacologists. research and drug testing.
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