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The Development of Human 'Organs on a Chip' Could Mean the End of Animal Testing

Organs-on-a-chip could replace animal testing with simulated human body systems.

The Development of Human 'Organs on a Chip' Could Mean the End of Animal Testing
Wikimedia Commons // Timothy Ruban

Before a potential drug is tested on humans, it must first undergo animal testing. The problem is, 30 percent of drugs that are used successfully on animals are toxic to humans. Another 60 percent of drugs that that work on animals fail to have any efficacy on humans.

An untold number of drugs that could be toxic or ineffective on animals could actually be helpful to humans, but we have no way of knowing it. Humans and mice, rabbits, dogs, and primates have many things in common, but in the end, we are simply different animals. Which means drug testing on non-human animals has limited value. Fortunately, scientists have come up with a better plan — based on computers.

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