Researchers uncovered how fatty molecules called ceramides trigger acute kidney injury by damaging the mitochondria that power kidney cells. By altering ceramide metabolism or using a new drug candidate, the team was able to protect mitochondrial function and completely prevent kidney injury in mice.
The only thing that would be better than animal trials would be some sort of flawless digital recreation of a human being that scientists can infinitely experiment on.
Preferably a wide variety of human beings, white, black, Asian, native, male, female, young, old, with current diseases, without current diseases, etc., etc.
Until that technology exists, animal testing is the next best thing.
If you want to skip animal testing, then you’re just going to start doing Joseph Mengele’s experiments in the Nazi death camps again, and we’ve been there, and we learned a lot from it, but it was absolutely atrocious, and not worth what we got from it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_human_experimentation
Animals have teeth and the potential to bite.
They can now grow various organ tissues in a Petri Dish, including brains, muscle, heart, blood vessels, etc.
Those select samples won’t just get up and walk around and bite people…
Lab animals don’t just run around. If they escape, there’s a serious problem in the research facility. Their teeth are only a concern for the researchers working with them.
Everyone would be happy if we had an easier model than animals. If organoids could give us all the answers we get from lab animals, all the scientists would be happy. Not only would it get rid of many ethical issues (and associated administrative), it would also be cheaper. Sadly, it’s not the case and we cannot effectively replace lab animals by other model systems. Not for many applications anyway.