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New Robotic Tests Could Decrease Animal Testing

by Thomas Houston on February 18, 2008 at 12:59 PM

U.S. regulators announced last week plans to use robots to improve the process of testing toxicity levels in chemicals commonly used by humans. Currently, most chemicals are tested by directly injecting the chemicals into animals, an inefficient and costly process. Samuel Wilson, director of National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and NTP, explains, "The news here is the capacity to test many thousands of compounds, something we haven't had until this collaboration."

Driven by a call for action within the scientific and animal rights communities, the new testing procedures promise to speed testing via the use of cell cultures and computer simulations to test the potentially toxic chemicals. BBC News reports that scientists hope to improve on the precision with which test results can be applied from animals to humans.

From BBC News

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