Today the well-known primatologist Dr Jane Goodall called for a Nobel prize for advancing medical knowledge without experimenting on animals, as reported in the Guardian. This rather misses the point. Since about 70% of Nobel prizes in medicine or physiology involve the use of animals, it is already the case that around 30% do not.

The issue is also discussed on the Guardian ‘comment is free blog’, coinciding with the launch of a report by animal protection groups across Europe calling for greater efforts to replace animal experiments across Europe.

We would all wish to see alternative methods developed that could fully replace the use of animals in research. With current scientific knowledge it cannot happen yet. But this is an area of potential common ground between the scientific community and the animal protection movement. At a meeting held at the European Parliament in Brussels, we heard of the many examples of new technologies which have replaced animal studies, or could do so in the future. Much progress has been made already, and there is much more to be done.