Can alternative research methods replace animals in research?
Non-sentient animals (e.g., insects, worms) and research tools such as cell and tissue cultures (to study individual cells, genes and molecules) are used in nearly all phases of biomedical research. However, they cannot give us definitive assessments as to how substances will interact in complex organisms. Studying mammals is very valuable to researchers because they are closest to us in evolutionary terms. For example, many diseases that affect human beings also affect other mammals, but they do not occur in plants, insects or bacteria.
