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Highlighting role of animal research in human health.  A visually appealing website with an array of research summaries.

Comprehensive list of sites regarding animal research.

Research leading to almost every Nobel Prize in Medicine awarded since 1901 was dependent on data from animal models.  This fact dramatically demonstrates the important contribution animal models in biomedical research make to both international and American medical progress. In fact, since 1979, every Nobel Prize in Medicine awarded was dependent on data from animal models with the exception of the 1983 Prize awarded to Dr. Barbara McClintock for her work in plant genetics.

The Animal Research Behind the Top 25 most Prescribed Drugs

Millions of people suffer from asthma, a frightening disease that makes you feel like you're drowning. Using both mouse and human cells - and a humanized mouse to show how human type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2) work in the body, researchers at Janssen Research and Development, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School are figuring out ILC2's role in asthma. Their findings have important implications in the quest for effective asthma therapies!

In Milan, two German Shepherds trained for this particular task have certainly proven themselves accurate. The dogs were trained to detect specific chemicals in urine samples. One dog successfully identified prostate cancer in 98.7% of samples, and the other dog successfully identified prostate cancer in 97.6% of samples.

Health care costs have been a hot button topic in recent years, and rightfully so. The United States spends an extraordinary amount of money on health care each year - $9,523 for every man, woman and child to be exact. This totals over 1 trillion dollars, accounting for roughly 17 percent of the United States' gross domestic product (GDP). The federal government spends 27 percent of its total budget on health care. Astonishingly more than it spends on the military, food and agriculture, education, transportation, and international affairs combined. So where is all the money going? Strangely enough, to combat just a few diseases.

Parkinson's is a result of the loss of cells in various parts of the brain, including one portion that produces the neurotransmitter dopamine. Dopamine is essential for being able to move in a coordinated way, so the loss of dopamine causes the tremors often associated with the condition. While the exact cause of Parkinson's is unknown, genetics and environment are contributing factors. Most cases occur in patients with no family history of Parkinson's disease, but there are 13 gene mutations that have been linked to either causing the disease or increasing one's risk of developing it. Certainly not everyone who carries these gene mutations develops Parkinson's, but identifying these genetic indicators is the beginning of developing more precise treatments.

Learn to use Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man®, or OMIM®, a catalog of human genes and genetic conditions. OMIM is a foundational resource in genomics and is valuable for clinicians and biomedical researchers. OMIM links and data are found at sites all around the bioinformatics sphere, but understanding the full scope of OMIM's data and resources enable the most comprehensive understanding of human phenotypes and disease. OMIM contains full-text summaries of information from the scientific literature, and provides extensive links to the literature resources and other genomic resource tools as well. Use OMIM as a comprehensive first stop to find important information and gene links for human Mendelian disorders.

So how do animals play a role in this research? Well, in a couple of ways. First, the chlorotoxin in Tumor Paint was derived from scorpion venom. Second, researchers worked with dogs before moving into human trials to determine the likelihood of success. After promising results in canines, human trials are now underway at Cedars Sinai Medical Center! Right now, the study is aimed at proving that Tumor Paint is able to reach the brain tumor successfully. If all goes well, it's possible that this could lead to more successful surgical outcomes.

Naked mole rats are hairless, blind, underground dwellers that are remarkably impervious to cancer. But why you ask? Well, researchers at the University of Rochester asked that same question and it turns out a cluster of genes, called the INK4 locus, is the answer. This locus, also found in humans and mice, uses that cluster to carry instructions, or encode, for several cancer fighting proteins.

Over a million people in the United States have some form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease or IBD. It can be caused by intestinal bacteria, environment or genetics. One thing is for sure, the lining of the intestines don't work correctly because the cells have been disturbed by one of these things. A common finding in Crohn's and IBD is that a molecule called TNF is elevated, and starts the inflammation process. Researchers still don't know what signals the TNF to go up, but maybe they can turn it off with another molecule.

Scientists work with animal models to better understand type 2 diabetes to treat the disease. They have developed specialized animal models that mimic the condition.  One line of mice, known as KK mice, develop obesity and glucose intolerance that lead to type 2 diabetes. Another rodent model, the Zucker diabetic fatty rat, is bred to be a precise model of human type 2 diabetes.

Recently, in an article in the New Republic, 'The Animals That Can Save Your Life', journalist Emma Young introduces readers to the emerging science of training animals to detect things humans cannot.