There was a great story all over the media yesterday about scientists growing liver tissue from stem cells. I suppose what caught my attention was that The Scotsman and several other newspapers said that this meant mini artificial livers could replace animal and human medicines testing.

Well, one day they might replace the small amount of testing carried out for liver toxicity, but they would tell us nothing about potential toxicity to the immune system, to the nervous system, to the fetus, or about the potential to cause cancer. And they would be of little use in research into Alzheimer’s disease, HIV, bird flu, cystic fibrosis and other diseases in need of prevention, treatment or cure.

Shame this interesting advance got hyped out of all proportion and scientists got misquoted. I asked one of them what he had actually said, and he commented:

I do think that new techniques may reduce animal testing, and replace certain elements of it, but I don’t say that animal testing is gone forever. It is still an important element of the work that we do. I do believe in Reduce, Replace and Refine, but I am also realistic.

Certainly puts it in context. This is still a great example of the steady work scientists are doing towards reducing the numbers of animals used in research and testing by developing potential replacement alternatives.