Scientists at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine have managed to 3D print structures made of living cells that were successfully implanted into animals, as reported in Nature Biotechnology on Monday.
The 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine is shared between William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura, and Youyou Tu, who contributed to fighting parasitic diseases, among which malaria. The research behind this year’s Nobel Prize in Medicine has once again relied on animal research – over the past 40 years, every Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine bar one has done so.
Over the last 40 years, every Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine but one has depended on work using animals. From modern vaccines that protect us against polio, TB and meningitis, to the development of Tamoxifen that has led to a 30% fall in death rates from breast cancer, the role of research animals cannot be underestimated.
Earlier this month Britain become the first country in the world to permit mitochondrial donation to be used in treatment and help prevent serious genetic diseases. The procedure, which allows IVF babies to be created using donor mitochondrial DNA, has the potential to help some 2,500 mother in the UK alone. Many are not only concerned with the ethics, but on how safe the procedure actually is. Previous research has used mice and rhesus monkeys, but are these animals a good indicator of human reproductive biology?