NIH launches new Standardized Organoid Modeling (SOM) Center in planned move away from animal testing in medical research

Good news! Long overdue!

Where are the animal rights activists when you need them! Animal testing for research is a disturbing blind spot by these activists.

"... The centre, which will be funded with $87 million (£65 million) in contracts spread out over three years and housed at the NIH’s Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research in Maryland, aims to address reproducibility challenges through the use of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and various human cell lines. The hope is that the standardised organoid models created will be widely used by researchers and accepted by regulators, accelerating scientific discoveries and decisions. ..."

"... launching the Standardized Organoid Modeling (SOM) Center, a national resource that will be dedicated to using cutting-edge technologies to develop standardized organoid-based new approach methodologies (NAMs) that deliver robust, reproducible, and patient-centered research findings. ..."

US launches $87m organoid centre to replace animal testing in drug discovery | Chemistry World

NIH establishes nation's first dedicated organoid development center to reduce reliance on animal modeling (original news release) "The Standardized Organoid Modeling Center aims to produce standardized protocols for organoid research, addressing reproducibility challenges."

Brain organoid depicting neural stem cells in green and neurons in magenta. Both cell types are abundant, showing normal development.

White House slashes medical research on monkeys and other animal testing, sparking fierce new debate. Really!

Good news! It is truly shocking how many animals are subjected to and killed by experiments and medical research etc.

Where are the animal activists when you need them! Do they accept these tests/experiments, because they fear for their own health and lack of medical treatment options?

Are we not ready to switch to alternative testing methods at the end of the first quarter of the 21st century? Maybe it is time for change!

"... The Trump administration has canceled nearly $28 million of federal grants for animal testing as major federal health agencies are phasing out research on live animals in favor of new alternatives, a joint investigation by CBS News and The Post and Courier of Charleston, South Carolina, has found. ..."

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White House slashes medical research on monkeys and other animal testing, sparking fierce new debate

National Institutes of Health are working on reducing animal testing

Good news! Will President Trump push for less animal testing? We hope so! All the President's women!

"Nicole Kleinstreuer, a computational toxicologist at the National Institutes of Health, over the past few months. Kleinstreuer was thrust into the spotlight earlier this year when she was named acting deputy director and chosen to help lead a new office working to reduce the use of animals in NIH-funded research. ..."

"... In these roles, she led interagency and international efforts to promote new approach methodologies (NAMs), reduce animal testing, and integrate computational modeling, artificial intelligence, and systems toxicology into regulatory science. ..."

ScienceAdviser

Nikole Kleinstreuer, Acting NIH Deputy Director for Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives (official photo)

FDA Announces Plan to Phase Out Animal Testing Requirement for Monoclonal Antibodies and Other Drugs

Good news, but old news! That is a good start! 

Too many animals are killed and hurt every day for our safety and health. I blogged e.g. here about it.

"Today [4/10/2025], the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is taking a groundbreaking step to advance public health by replacing animal testing in the development of monoclonal antibody therapies and other drugs with more effective, human-relevant methods. The new approach is designed to improve drug safety and accelerate the evaluation process, while reducing animal experimentation, lowering research and development (R&D) costs, and ultimately, drug prices. ..."

FDA Announces Plan to Phase Out Animal Testing Requirement for Monoclonal Antibodies and Other Drugs | FDA

Credits: Stat Daily Recap

Viagra and other unlikely candidates lead hunt for new longevity drugs. Several prominent candidates were already dismissed

Is this science or alchemy? It appears so far this program has not yet identified a chemical that extends life, but several promising and some hyped candidates were dismissed.

Not easy to find the fountain of youth! 😊

"Later this year, 240 mice will begin nibbling food laced with sildenafil citrate, the active ingredient in Viagra. An equal number will start dining on chow that includes the antihypertension drug captopril. The mice don’t suffer from erectile dysfunction or high blood pressure. They are the latest rodent recruits in the Interventions Testing Program (ITP), a 22-year-old project funded and run by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) that gauges whether compounds extend longevity in mice—with the hope that they will also do so in people.

So far, the ITP has evaluated more than 
60 drugs, dietary components, hormones, supplement ingredients, and other molecules, alone and in combinations. Sildenafil citrate and captopril are among the eight new candidates announced in late August, a couple of months after NIA announced it would re-up the program’s funding—more than $5 million annually—for another 5 years. ...

[In the past] Some research had suggested certain compounds stretch mouse survival, but the studies were usually small and their results rarely replicated.  ...

To provide credible evidence, the ITP has followed roughly the same procedure for more than 20 years. Each spring, outside researchers nominate candidates that provide health benefits in mice or humans, boost longevity in other organisms, or trigger other positive effects. A committee then selects the six to eight most promising, which are evaluated at UM, the University of Texas Health Science Center, and the Jackson Laboratory.

Researchers test each intervention in 
240 mice—80 at each site—while another 160 serve as controls. The scientists track the mice through the rest of their life spans, which can be more than 2 years. (A companion study, the CITP, assesses possible pro-longevity molecules in nematodes to probe their effects and delve deeper into aging mechanisms.) ...

Among the compounds the project has discredited are the big-selling supplements L-leucine and MitoQ, fish oil, and curcumin, an ingredient in turmeric. The vaunted grape extract resveratrol also fell flat in three rounds of studies. ..."

Viagra and other unlikely candidates lead hunt for new longevity drugs | Science | AAAS

Program Workflow

How the Food & Drug Administration Can Reduce Animal Testing

Federal bureaucracies are like molasses or worse! Members of the U.S. Congress are not much better! The issue addressed in this article has been known for several decades!

A Prayer For Animals Used In Experimentation

"... If the FDA prioritizes science, health, and ethics over political considerations, it should support the development of sophisticated in vitro and computational approaches to curtail animal testing ...

The number of annually required animal tests is staggering. Over 110 million mice and rats are killed every year in the name of science in the U.S., as are other animals, including monkeys, rabbits, pigs, guinea pigs, cats, and dogs.

And the benefits are not always apparent. When the KHA [Kefauver–Harris Amendments (KHA) to the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act] was passed [in 1962], it was the scientific standard of its time. Sixty years later, scientists have learned that the results of animal tests are not necessarily useful or predictive in humans. Approximately 90 percent of early-phase clinical trials fail after extensive animal testing has already been conducted. Despite this, the FDA requires animal tests to be performed for almost every IND [Investigational New Drug] it reviews, regardless of utility. ...
Animal tests are often unnecessary. Aside from the many animal species and breeds involved, the variety of metabolic pathways and drug metabolites in animals leads to variation in efficacy, toxicity, disease latency, and dosing schedules. Often, the results are only loosely relevant to human beings. For example: isotretinoin, also known as Accutane, causes birth defects in rabbits, monkeys, and humans, but not in mice or rats. ..."

How the FDA Can Reduce Animal Testing | City Journal The agency should support sophisticated in vitro and computational approaches that can curtail—and potentially even replace—the practice.