Alternatives to Animals

Your experimental designs are coming into focus. Sample sizes…power analyses…and treatment conditions, oh my! And, all throughout, perhaps laboratory animals are needed. But, are they? Can you actually replace them and still rigorously test the hypothesis? If not, maybe the protocol can be refined in such a way to reduce their overall numbers, while still ensuring their humane care and use?

In this NIH All About Grants podcast, Drs. Neera Gopee with the NIH Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare and Christine Livingston with the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences join us for this conversation. They discuss the 3Rs (replace, refine, and reduce), helpful resources for relevant policies, what’s needed for the Vertebrate Animals Section of grant applications, the role of IACUCs and peer review, as well as organoids, in silico models, and other alternatives.

Visit this Extramural Nexus article for more information.