Cross Breeds

What are some animals that have helped to make medicinal advances?

I am doing a research paper that has to do with animals in medicine. I am having trouble finding anything that doesn't have to do with animal testing and the ethics of it. I am not arguing that point this is strictly a paper about how animals have impacted the medical field. Thanks.

Public Comments

1. So many!! (go to the links in my sources) I work in a medical lab. We use mice to research cancer treatment for efficacy and research inflammation that promotes cancer and metastasis. Mice are used often (research in sleep studies, dietary studies, stem cells and neuronal understanding). I know labs that use rats for diabetes and heart research. I know one researcher that uses chickens in ovarian cancer research. Rabbits,monkeys, pigs and guinea pigs are also used. We also use antibodies to do immunohistochemical staining which is a necessary tool. These antibodies are made in mice, rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, goats and donkeys. We couldn't do the research without these animals and we do everything withing our powers to ethically treat them within the perimeters of our research.
2. There are a wide range. It depends what research is being done Simple animals like nematode worms and Drosophila fruit flies are used as model animals for many genetic studies, to work out how genes are controlled, what common genes determine how all living things are put together. Using such model species we know that there are some genes that control body shape in all living animals - so heads are one end, legs in the middle etc. Probably the majority of animals used in medical research are rats and mice. These have been used to advance knowledge in many fields, from genetics, to oncology (cancer), to cardiology (hearts), to toxicology (drugs and poisons), as well as advances in medicines. Sometimes animals are used because of their similarities to humans. Pigs for example have a circulation system that is close to the human one, so they are often used in research into heart diseases and the like. Sometimes animals are used because they provide a good model of a disease. Armadillos are used in leprosy research because these are the only species other than humans that can actually catch leprosy. Sometimes animals are used because of their differences to humans. Sharks are immune to cancer, so exampining them could help us to understand what mechanism prohibits shark cells from mutating into cancer cells, and find new therapies. Zebra fish can heal their hearts when they become damaged (unlike humans) so they could show us new ways to heal people after heart attacks. And let us not forget one very important animal used in medical research - human beings. On average when developing a new drug, 15 people are used for each animal. As we can talk, as we can give informed consent, as we can feed back things, we're very good test subjects in our own right.