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Uncovering alternatives to animal testing | Alumni & Friends | Brown University

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Brown researchers are pursuing a promising new method that could transform toxicology testing, making it faster and more effective without the use of animals. Every day, we are exposed to approximately 75,000 artificial chemicals. They’re in the food we eat, the medicines we take, and many of the household products we use. But what do we know about how they affect our bodies? Not much, it turns out. That’s because toxicology testing is a slow and painstaking process. “This kind of research is conducted in mice and rats over a lifetime of the mouse and rat, which is two to three years,” says Kim Boekelheide, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Brown’s Warren Alpert School of Medicine. “And, it can take up to 10 years to actually get a report.” Boekelheide says that each time this is done, it can cost approximately $3 million. But even then, scientists can’t be sure that the findings produced from rat and mice tissues are applicable to humans. “If you expose mice and rats t

Every day, we are exposed to approximately 75,000 artificial chemicals. They’re in the food we eat, the medicines we take, and many of the household products we use. But what do we know about how they affect our bodies? Not much, it turns out. That’s because toxicology testing is a slow and painstaking process. “This kind of research is conducted in mice and rats over a lifetime of the mouse and rat, which is two to three years,” says Kim Boekelheide, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Brown’s Warren Alpert School of Medicine. “And, it can take up to 10 years to actually get a r

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