Why animals are used for human disease study
- July 26, 2020
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Subject: Science and tech
Context:
Researchers have always relied on using animals to understand various human diseases.
Concept:
- Major reason to use animals is that they have been the genetic similarity with humans (mice share 98% of DNA with us), and humans have developed tools to edit genes in various animals.
- An animal model for a particular disease should fulfill two criteria.
- It should be able to “catch” that infection (in case of infectious diseases) and show the clinical outcomes and altered physiology that accompanies the disease.
- Then only scientists can try to find the elusive vaccine/drug by attempting to cure experimentally infected lab mice, rats, hamsters and rhesus monkeys