FILED UNDER SOMETHINGISRAELI >> Health & Lifestyle
Medical research
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Following recent concerns in the UK over the way in which human drug trials have gone wrong, Israeli scientists have developed a pioneering way to conduct drug trials on rats that can mimic the affects on humans.
Cancer research on rats undertaken by the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology allowed them to grow human cancer cells. The researchers injected into the rats a growth made up of human tissues which allowed them to get a better understanding of how humans could react to the drugs being administered without the need to actually involve live humans.
By using human tissues, the Technion says results are more accurate than merely testing on just a rat and that any side affects can be discovered before it gets to humans.
"In order to check a new drug, it has to be tested in a human system," said Dr Zuckerman of the Technion’s Laboratory for Molecular Medicine who worked with Professor Karl Skorecki, director of the Rappaport Research Institute at the Technion’s Faculty of Medicine. "Our research helps address concerns raised in the last few years about the efficiency of trials on humans, and whether the structural similarity that exists between animals and humans actually indicates similarity on the functional level."
For more information: www.technion.ac.il