IrresistibleB1tch said:

I usually do this kind of thing alone but if you are intrested in colaboating then I would apreciate your literary and edidting skills

I know exactly what you're struggling with, Predom. Already knew during my education i'd never want to do animal testing, but i did want to do cancer research.
One of the reasons i'm glad i wound up doing bioinformatics in breast cancer research. At least, i can test things in silico .
I hope you can stay out of the animal testing for as long as is possible, but working at therapies, it may prove almost impossible to avoid.
Take care!

AlfofMelmak said:

IrresistibleB1tch said:

For those of you who don’t know I am a biochemical research scientist. I have prided myself on the fact that I have always avoided any form of animal testing in the work that I do. I have always felt that it is rather un-scientific to just stick a chemical in an animal and “see what happens” after all there are always alternative methods to explore.

Until now.

I suppose that I am lucky to have come this far but it is almost impossible to progress with some of my projects without resorting to using animal models. It’s not like I am out of ideas but the projects have progressed beyond bench experimentation and will only create the interest they deserve from the wider scientific community if I move into animals.

Is it any more acceptable if I don’t actually do the work myself?
Do I stick to my principals and leave projects I have worked 12 years towards?

I am interested to know what you all think, the wider, more compassionate org community.

PREDOMINANT said:

no kidding!

IrresistibleB1tch said:

Fail!!

You failed to pick up on my misspelling of collaborating

I know exactly what you're struggling with, Predom. Already knew during my education i'd never want to do animal testing, but i did want to do cancer research.
One of the reasons i'm glad i wound up doing bioinformatics in breast cancer research. At least, i can test things in silico .
I hope you can stay out of the animal testing for as long as is possible, but working at therapies, it may prove almost impossible to avoid.
Take care!

PREDOMINANT said:

And appreciate?

hey Steve ...first, let me echo Ivy in saying you're a hero for doing this. little Leo will be very proud of his Dad

You know of what I was born with, so you know that without research we/I wouldn't have anywhere near the knowledge and understanding of it that we do today. Genetic research, as far as I'm aware anyway, includes a lot of animal experimentation sadly I have no idea what the difference between Biochemical research and Genetic Research is or if they mesh at all but Cancer is an evil evil evil thing and if we have good people like yourself behind finding more info and hopefully eventually leading to a cure (which I firmly still believe is out there in nature somewhere - but maybe it will take scientists to find it) then that's what we need to do. I think most people who have seen and/or looked after loved ones with Cancer will agree

good luck hon keep us updated

IMO, I think animals are a necessary part of scientific research. I think for me it's about how the animals are treated in the process. I would not advocate abandoning 12 years worth of work to spare an animal that will not be spared anyway.....

PREDOMINANT said:

Steve my friend i know the kind of man you are and i owe you a huge debt for the past.
IMHO if this will benefit humankind in an ethical way then its ok. Simple terms if it is medical ( working on a cure etc etc) then ok....if its perfume....pour it in your own eyes
I know you will make the right choice my friend.
Good luck and love to the fam.
P

mdiver said:

Cheers mate, trouble is there is medical research and medical research. Despite this being the end of a process for me it is not necessarily the only path to take. Still think it might be avoidable, I'm just not sure how seriously the work will be taken.

AlfofMelmak said:

Interestingly I was I was looking at computer modelling yesterday (not strictly bioinformatics I grant you), I just cant believe the scientific community will buy any data generated by a computer mouse model injected with a computer generated theoretical treatment/drug. Do you face any problems publishing your stuff?

PREDOMINANT said:

Most of my work is with large numbers of tumours which were micrarrayed. Ofcourse to better understand breastcancer, but always with clinical applicability in mind. Here's my recent article. Did the analysis and wrote the paper.
For the future, we are going into systems biology. That'll be interesting stuff

AlfofMelmak said:

NIce! Just read the abstract, couldn't link to the full paper. It's an intresting take on mets, would this mean you could predict what tumours would be likely to metastasise to bone? Do you think this means that met locations are predetermined?