📢 Big News! Today, we released "Research Modernization NOW," our 2025 strategy to shift the research paradigm toward human-relevant science and away from outdated, misleading animal models of human disease. https://lnkd.in/ekqWDqUi Research Modernization NOW includes: 🏛️ Recent policy changes 🧪 New scientific findings 📈 Updated economic projections ⚕️ 16 priority disease areas in need of reform ⚙️ A 5-point action plan to achieve significant progress Compassion and scientific breakthroughs aren’t mutually exclusive. Good science and sound ethics can work hand-in-hand to achieve the shared goal of better health. The transformation proposed in Research Modernization NOW can begin TODAY. #scipol #sciencepolicy
Science Advancement and Outreach
Non-profit Organizations
Washington, District of Columbia 2,485 followers
Promoting human-relevant research, policies, and funding opportunities. Better for patients, better for animals.
About us
PETA’s Science Advancement & Outreach (SAO) division aims to change the paradigm of biomedical research by promoting the development and implementation of cutting-edge, human-relevant strategies in biomedical research and training and phasing out the use of animals in experimentation. We do this by influencing science policy, scientific publishing practices, and university scientific education and training to support the transition to animal-free research. SAO scientists also review the scientific efficacy and ethics of animal-based disease research paradigms and present their findings at scientific conferences, through guest lectures, and in scientific journals.
The scientists SAO have considerable expertise in the limitations of the animal experimentation paradigm and cutting-edge strategies in biomedical research and training as well as long-standing relationships with academic leaders, experts, and other stakeholders. SAO collaborates with a diverse scientific team. Its expertise includes neuroscience, physiology, genetics, toxicology, primatology, animal welfare, and public health.
- Website
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www.scienceadvancement.org
External link for Science Advancement and Outreach
- Industry
- Non-profit Organizations
- Company size
- 2-10 employees
- Headquarters
- Washington, District of Columbia
- Type
- Nonprofit
- Founded
- 2021
Locations
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Primary
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1536 16th St. N.W.
Washington, District of Columbia 20036, US
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501 Front St
Norfolk, Virginia 23510, US
Employees at Science Advancement and Outreach
Updates
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Engineers from UNT College of Engineering and Bioprinting Laboratories, Inc. developed a standard operating procedure for producing human brain organoids using a novel pillar plate system. 🧠 The system enhances reproducibility and enables high-throughput screening. Check it out: https://lnkd.in/eM2fK6ZJ 👥 Pranav Joshi; Prabha Acharya, Ph.D.; Mona Zolfaghar; Vanga Manav; Sunil Shrestha; Moo-Yeal Lee #organoid #brainorganoid #invitro #organoidprotocol #nonanimalmethods #NAMs #humanrelevantresearch #neuroscience
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💡 New SAO reflection! 💡 Donya Mand, MD dives into the need for research on medical students’ perceptions, attitudes, & knowledge regarding the use of animals in research and medical education. See what we learned from a small pilot survey. https://lnkd.in/g-NSv8YV
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Researchers at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University have modeled inflammatory bowel disease in human colon chips! The chips used patient-derived colon epithelial cells and matched fibroblasts to discover new drivers of the disease, which affects up to 3.1 million U.S. adults. https://lnkd.in/eUpxACwx 👥 Alican Ozkan, Ph.D.; Gwenn Merry; David Chou; Ryan Posey; Anna Stejskalová; Karina Calderon; Megan Sperry; Viktor Horváth; Lorenzo Ferri; Emanuela Carlotti; Stuart McDonald; Douglas J Winton; Rocco Riccardi; Liliana Bordeianou, MD, MPH; Sean Hall; girija goyal; and Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D. 🏛️ Wyss, Massachusetts General Hospital, McGill University, Queen Mary University of London, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute #organchip #organonchip #nonanimalmethods #NAMs #MPS #colonchip #IBD #inflammatoryboweldisease #humanrelevantresearch
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Science Advancement and Outreach reposted this
The Student Animal Legal Defense Fund, a part of UIC Law’s Animal Law program, hosted a screening and conversation with the Director of PETA's Science Advancement and Outreach Division, Dr. Emily Trunnell Dr. Trunnell spoke about the impacts of animal experimentation on science and students and showed a screening of “Test Subjects,” a short documentary in which she is featured.
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🧠 A new cerebral #organoid model, complete with microglia, was used to study the human brain's inflammatory response to #HIV infection and the effect of #antiretrovirals. https://lnkd.in/evZCbTmi By Srinivas Narasipura; Janet Zayas; Michelle Ash (Reilly); Anjelica Reyes, M.S.; Tanner Shull; Stéphanie Gambut; James L. A. Szczerkowski; Charia McKee; Jeff Schneider; Ramon Lorenzo Redondo (of Northwestern University - The Feinberg School of Medicine); Lena Al-Harthi; and João Mamede of Rush University Medical Center #cellculture #NAMs #nonanimalmethods #neuroscience #neuroinflammation
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🚨 New study alert! This first-of-its-kind analysis suggests that National Institutes of Health study sections need more reviewers with expertise in #NonAnimalResearch. Currently, animal experimenters dominate grant review for #neuroscience research funded by the agency. Details below 👇
Human-relevant neuroscience research is everywhere, but The National Institutes of Health still pours 💰 into many poorly translatable experiments on animals. Why? One reason: Grant reviewers are mostly animal experimenters themselves. 🆕 preprint from Katherine Roe and me: https://lnkd.in/edHYNgSt In a novel pilot study using iCite & RePORTER, we asked: ❓ What kind of research do the folks on NIH basic, translational, & preclinical #neuroscience study sections do in their own labs? ❓ What methods were used in the funded grants scored by these study sections? Here's what we found: 🔸 Across the 23 study sections, there was significantly more expertise in animal experiments than other methods. 🔸 Among funded grants scored by these study sections, 72% planned to use animals, while only 16% were for NAMs. Let's look at the 💲💲: 🔸 83.6% of NIH neuroscience research funding ($246,193,068) went projects that included animal experimentation. The agency gave much less to #NAMs. 🔸 Our regression analysis revealed a strong correlation between the amount of animal-based expertise on a study section & the use of animals in funded grants scored by that study section. (More animal experimenters on a grant review panel = more animal experiments funded.) 🔸 And conversely, when there is more animal-based expertise on a study section, fewer non-animal methods grants get funded. A lot of this seems like common sense... but before this study, it had never been formally analyzed. Despite public, political, & scientific support for transitioning away from the use of animals in science, funding for non-animal research has remained low. This pilot study represents the first look into potential #AnimalMethodsBias in U.S. research funding. More external meta-research + internal audits are needed to ensure that this bias does not unfairly affect funding for human-relevant, non-animal science. Some additional recommendations for NIH & other funders: 🔹 Broaden the pool of NAMs expertise in review panels 🔹 Create more NAMs-specific funding streams 🔹 Improve transparency 🔹 Encourage reporting of animal methods bias during grant review And of course, consult the Coalition to Illuminate and Address Animal Methods Bias as it develops strategies to assess and mitigate animal methods bias in grant funding. www.animalmethodsbias.org These barriers to NAMs adoption must be identified & addressed to spark the transition to humane, human-relevant research. #peerreview #peerreviewbias
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The MorPhIC Consortium is building a comprehensive catalog of human gene functions and their roles in disease using in vitro multicellular systems. Discover more about their ambitious goal and approach here: https://lnkd.in/eGZAnZ47. 👥 Mazhar Adli, Laralynne Przybyla, Tony Burdett, Pilar Cacheiro, Howard Chang, Jesse Engreitz, Luke Gilbert, William Greenleaf, Li Hsu, Danwei Huangfu, Ling-Hong Hung, ANSHUL KUNDAJE, Helen Parkinson, Stephan Schürer, PhD, Damian Smedley, Lorenz Studer, Wei Sun, Dusica Vidovic, and others of the MorPhIC Consortium. 🏢Northwestern University - The Feinberg School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, European Bioinformatics Institute | EMBL-EBI, William Harvey Research Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford Genetics, UCSF Department of Urology, Fred Hutch, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, School of Engineering & Technology - UW Tacoma, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, and UW Department of Biostatistics.
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Scientists have engineered a personalized human joint-on-a-chip model to test osteoarthritis therapies. Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/dUJzYz-S. Great work by Dalila Petta, Daniele D'Arrigo, Shima Salehi, Giuseppe Talò, Lorenzo Bonetti, Marco Vanoni, Luca Deabate, Luigi De Nardo, Gabriele Dubini, Christian Candrian Prof., Matteo Moretti, Silvia Lopa, Chiara Arrigoni of Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale (EOC), Ospedale Galeazzi - Sant'Ambrogio, CMICPolimi, and USI Università della Svizzera italiana!
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An important piece by Celia Ford via Vox on the hidden cost of animal experimentation paid by animals—but also the scientists, vets, and caretakers tasked with harming them. Academia & industry rarely talk about it, but this silence is hurting science itself. https://lnkd.in/dngk_bBB More than 100M animals are used in labs 🌎 every year. Young scientists are taught that discomfort with harming them means they’re too weak for science. To compete for jobs, grad students and postdocs must suppress emotions, even when performing deeply distressing procedures. Studies show that animal experimenters suffer significantly higher anxiety than their peers. A 2018 global survey found that 41% of early-career researchers had moderate-to-severe anxiety, and 39% had moderate-to-severe depression. The numbers keep rising. https://lnkd.in/gEg3ruXr Sweden tracked 20,000 PhD students and found that psychiatric medication use nearly doubled by graduation. The natural sciences—where animal experimentation is common—were among the worst affected. https://lnkd.in/ey3xgtMb Most experiments on animals never translate to human medicine. Over 90% of cancer drugs that work in mice fail in humans. Scientists call this the “valley of death.” So why do the same experiments keep happening? https://lnkd.in/dh4sNYDm Many researchers feel trapped. Acknowledging flaws in experiments conducted on animals could mean admitting that years of work were ineffective—or even unethical. Many simply don’t. The system is built to keep doing what it’s always done, no matter the cost. But some challenged the status quo—like Lisa Jones-Engel, Madeline Krasno, and Garet Lahvis, mentioned in the article, as well as others like Science Advancement and Outreach director Emily Trunnell and Frances Cheng. They questioned the validity of animal research and became advocates for change. If young scientists are forced to suffer in silence, science itself will suffer—losing brilliant minds who refuse to accept suffering as the price of discovery. This is a brain drain we cannot and should not accept. The scientific community must acknowledge the mental health toll of animal experimentation, which could be eliminated by a shift toward human-relevant, non-animal methods. The future of science depends on it. https://lnkd.in/e6W25FJv