SP research to replace animal tests – Swedish Radio

To avoid using animal testing works Emma Eriksson at SP in Borås to find better testing methods. Good for the animals, but perhaps also better for the man.

– It is very exciting that we can join in and contribute to it are developed animal-free test methods eliminates the need to do animal testing, says Emma Eriksson, who works at Sweden’s only lab approved by the EU to evaluate new animal-free methods of analysis.

Every year countless animals in experiments around the country in the name of research. At the Swedish SP Technical Research Institute, is one part of a project that, along with three other labs in Europe are working to validate cell-based approaches.

The lab meets the requirements set by the EU for it to be part one of the labs that may be involved and make so-called in-vitro tests, ie to test chemicals in a lab on a cell instead of an animal.

For a methodology being tested will be able to replace a method using animal testing is required to be tested inside and out and it is here that is happening right now in the lab.

– There is a method to identify endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Now we will begin producing data in the lab and in the best case proves the method as well so that you can start using it, she says,

– It’s surely a three to four years before the method we validates can be absorbed and incorporated into a framework. But one has to start somewhere.

According to Emma Eriksson, not only for ethical reasons as research wins on whether you can get rid of animal testing.

– Just because you measured one thing in an animal so do not need mean that the

effect is the same in humans. So not only is there room to avoid animal testing, but also to develop better testing methods that can predict the effect on humans better.

Erika Larsson
033-17 75 40
erika.larsson@sverigesradio.se