Animal Aid

Genetically Modified Animals in Medical Research - A Critical Review

Hundreds of millions of genetically modified (GM) animals are used in medical research and in the testing of drugs and chemicals every year. In response to their increasing utilisation, Animal Aid has commissioned this report, which examines the GM animal phenomenon, and shows that they have made no tangible contributions to human health and medicine - and, for sound scientific reasons - are never likely to do so.

Executive Summary

Introduction

• Why are animals used in scientific research, and how many are used?

Genes And Proteins: A Brief Introduction

• What's in a gene?
• Gene Expression: An exquisitely controlled process

Making Genetically Modified Animals

What exactly are GM, mutant and transgenic animals? Some terms...

So how are they made?

1. Virus-based transgenisis
2. Pronuclear microinjection
3. Embryonic stem cell method

• Recent developments and other uses of GM technology
• Mutations and Mutagenesis
• The mouse mutagenesis project

Uses of, and Problems with, Genetically Modified Animals

• Human disease models
• Toxicology
• Production of organs for human transplant
• Pharmaceutical factories
• Cloning

Alternatives to Research involving Transgenic Animals
Summary & Conclusion

Glossary & references

PDF version

Written by Dr. Jarrod Bailey B.Sc.(Hons), Ph.D.
Published by Animal Aid, November 2005. ISBN: 1-905327-03-X

See also Designer Mice (2002) published by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV), which was invaluable in the production of Animal Aid's Man or Mouse.