The concept of “One Health,” which was adopted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2009 and will be the theme of the 2019 AALAS National Meeting, is focused on the idea that the environment plays a key role in human disease. The planet continues to undergo serious and...

John Donne said that no man is an island, and while he expressed that sentiment almost 400 years ago, it’s even more true today. In fact, while Donne meant to suggest that humans need to be part of a community to thrive, these days the idea is being taken even...

Researchers working with animal models traditionally look at the brain, but recent studies are increasingly focused on a different area—the gut, or microbiome, which is emerging as an important factor in human health. It’s a fertile area of study: The human gut is home to more than 500 different types of...

All over the world, animal models are used in pre-clinical research to learn more about how the body works, and to identify causes and develop treatments and cures for disorders and diseases. While global research goals may be similar, there are significant differences between standards for pre-clinical research with animals...

How important is the comfort and “happiness” of the mice we use in research? Providing laboratory animals a comfortable, safe, and enriching environment that gives them a way to play and act in accordance with their natural instincts is more than kindness; multiple studies show that it actually makes them...

Rodents, usually rats and mice, have been the most commonly used animals for biomedical research for more than a century for a number of reasons: they are readily available, easy to handle, and very similar to humans physiologically and genetically. What is the difference between a mouse and rat? While there...

For the past 100 years, mice have been the primary model for biomedical research. Not only are they easy to keep and reproduce, mice have significant similarities to humans both genetically and physiologically. With genetic manipulation, scientists have been able to create mouse models for many human diseases and conditions, enabling...

When you’re working in a lab with research animals, having the right equipment is paramount. Use this helpful checklist to make sure your lab has all the equipment needed for maximum efficiency and the safety of your technicians and animals. Anesthesia Capability Any lab that performs surgery on animals needs a method...

Research requires money, and finding the funds you need to support your research is a fact of life for most clinical researchers. Fortunately there are many sources of funding available, including research grants, awards, fellowships, cooperatives, and other types of funding. While there are many websites and organizations dedicated to finding funding...

Animal models have been used in biomedical research for hundreds of years, and clinical research using mice and rats has led to some of the most important scientific breakthroughs in 2018. Aging Is it possible to reverse the aging process? Several different research teams are making progress. In March, researchers at Harvard...

Does the general public know about the scientific research you’re conducting? If your findings aren’t getting any coverage in the mainstream news, the answer is probably not. Why should scientists be interested in getting coverage of their research in the mainstream press? In addition to letting people know about scientific advancements...

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and while breast cancer incidence rates and death rates have both been declining for years, breast cancer is still the second-most commonly diagnosed cancer among American women, and has the second-highest death rates. Fortunately, scientists all over the world are working to understand how it...

September is World Alzheimer’s Month, and unfortunately we need Alzheimer’s research more than ever. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, more than 5.7 million Americans are currently living with Alzheimer’s, and that number is expected to more than double by 2050. While mortality rates for other diseases—including the number one cause of...

On August 1, meteorologist Kelvin Droegemeier was nominated as the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OTSP). The office plays a central role in determining research and development budgets, providing science and technology expertise for national policy, and coordinating the White House’s science agenda for...

Kent Scientific’s SomnoSuite Low Flow Anesthesia System not only uses a fraction of the isoflurane while maintaining stable levels of anesthesia for mice and rats, it has another, less well-known benefit: it does not require compressed gas in order to operate. With the high-flow canister-style vaporizers traditionally used for inhalant...

Animal models have been used in biomedical research for hundreds of years, and some of the most important breakthroughs animal research has made possible are vaccines. Research with mice, rats, and other animals has led to vaccines for polio, several types of meningitis, typhus, whooping cough, smallpox, tetanus, measles, cholera,...

Every scientist that has conducted experimental research with animal subjects knows that an essential part of any experiment is determining which variables have the potential to affect the outcome. Ideally the variables not being tested are known and controlled, but in some cases unknown variables have caused skewed and unexpected...

When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, kids’ top dream jobs include dancer, actor, musician, athlete, detective, and astronaut. While all of these jobs are legitimate careers (wizard and superhero did not make the list, at...

Laboratory animals are a valuable resource. Using mice and rats as surgical models for biomedical research represents a significant investment of time and money. Researchers who are privileged to work with live animals bear a responsibility to respect their resources and understand that it’s important to do everything possible to...

In 2017, James Damore, an engineer at Google, was fired for posting a memo claiming that women were biologically and psychologically less suited to working in high-tech career fields. The memo got Damore fired from Google, but the idea that women are less capable of performing at high levels in technical...