New System May Replace Lab Rats with Robots

It’s not an unrealistic human worry that one day we’ll all be rendered obsolete and replaced by machines. For lab rats, that could soon become a reality, but it’s hardly something for the creatures to lose sleep over. Thanks to recent advances in robotics and software, many rodents could be replaced as soon as next year by a new computer system.

The system will spare the lives of lab rats by using high-speed, automated screening robots to test the safety of both pharmaceuticals and environmental chemicals (like pesticides and household cleaners) on cells and isolated molecular targets. It was developed through Tox21, a collaboration between three federal agencies: the FDA, EPA and National Institutes of Health.

An EPA press release states that, among several other advantages, the system is expected to produce results more relevant to humans and reduce the number of animals involved in testing. "Data collection to determine chemical toxicity currently relies heavily on whole-animal tests," the EPA says. "The growing number of new chemicals, high testing costs and public unease with animal testing led to the search for alternate toxicology testing methods."

Bob Chapin, a senior research fellow at pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, explained to Bloomberg that instead of a test taking a month and involving about 80 animals, the new system will take only one to five days — with fewer animals being harmed. Longer studies, such as those to assess cancer risk, can take two years and require 800 mice and rats. Such tests cost $5.2 million back in 2000 — not to mention the cost of life.

"We want to migrate away from animal testing," David Jacobson-Kram, the FDA's executive director for pharmacology and toxicology, told Bloomberg.

It’s about time. Using rodents as test subjects has proven to be unreliable, because rats have different physiology than humans. And, of course, the tests themselves are cruel and inhumane. Recent studies have found that mice not only feel pain, but the cages in which they live actually alter their brains.

Fortunately, things seem to finally be looking up for lab animals. At Tel Aviv University, scientists are busy developing ways to use tissue generated from adult rat stem cells for testing — another positive step in making lab rats obsolete. Professor Amit Gefen said that testing bioengineered tissue could actually be more efficient. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brown University and other research centers, complex living microtissues are being built from cultured cells, another potential way to "outsource" lab animals.

Pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer are no doubt thrilled with the new computer system, since the reduction of testing time means increased revenue. Let them rejoice over the possibility of saving millions of dollars. We animal lovers can rejoice over the possibility of the system saving millions of lives.

Photo credit: Jean-Etienne Poirrier