In human medicine

Much of modern physicians’ knowledge of human health and physiology stems from studies in animals.

In the last few years alone, studies involving lab animals made it possible to develop mRNA and viral vector vaccines for COVID-19. They also enabled the design of cancer immunotherapies such as immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Here are just a few of the life-altering, life-extending, and lifesaving medical advancements that animal research has made possible:

  • Therapies for diabetes, high blood pressure, various forms of heart disease, high cholesterol, cancer, kidney disease, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and more
  • Organ transplantation
  • Antibiotics
  • Insulin for diabetes and inhalers for asthma
  • Anesthetics
  • Vaccines for polio, meningitis, tetanus, hepatitis, and SARS-CoV-2
  • Surgical techniques including coronary artery bypass and hip replacement
  • Blood transfusions
  • Imaging techniques including CT and MRI
  • Cardiac pacemakers
  • In vitro fertilization

In veterinary medicine

Just as people and animals are inextricably connected in their physiologic and biologic function, so are human medicine and veterinary medicine. Veterinary research also relies on the study of animals, and discoveries made in one arena often translate to the other. For instance, veterinarians may use the same antibiotics, painkillers, tranquilizers, vaccines, tests, and surgeries to diagnose and treat their patients as doctors do. Cancer therapies developed with the help of research in dogs now benefit not only human cancer patients but also dogs, about 6 million of which are diagnosed with cancer each year in the United States alone, according to the Animal Cancer Foundation. Veterinary therapies based on insights from animal research are also used to prevent disease and treat livestock and animals in the wild.

In science

Nearly every Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine has relied on animal data for their research, according to the Foundation for Biomedical Research (see a complete list here). In addition to medical applications, studies of animals and other organisms reveal invaluable information about the biological principles that sometimes unite and sometimes distinguish different kinds of life on Earth.

Research in animal models have led to breakthrough insights in areas including:

  • Cell biology
  • Genetics
  • Evolution
  • Embryonic development
  • Creation of induced pluripotent stem cells
  • Circadian rhythms and sleep regulation
  • Telomeres and telomerase (regulators of cell aging)
  • Innate and adaptive immune systems
  • Brain and nervous system
  • Ability to modify or “knock out” individual genes in mice
  • RNA interference (gene silencing)
  • How various sensory systems, such as touch, smell, sight, and hearing, work
  • Programmed cell death, a process involved in cancer development
  • Cancer development, metastasis, and suppression, including discovery of viruses that can cause cancer