Latest news with #animalresearch
BBC News
29-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Cells from dead rhino could bring new life, says Shropshire charity
A skin sample from a rhino could bring the promise of new life thanks to the work of a wildlife charity, four years after the rhino's 40-year-old southern white rhino from Whipsnade Zoo died in October 2021, with vets teaming up with three specialist groups to collect tissue samples from the dead Shropshire-based charity Nature's SAFE has created "millions" of new living cells from the sample. It believes this is the first time this has happened in the charity, based in Whitchurch, said it was the first stage in an innovative process that could allow scientists to develop new egg or sperm cells from this rhino. It would enable the rhino to contribute to the breeding population of southern white rhino for years into the future, despite her having died in SAFE preserved a skin sample from the rhino's ear while it was still in a living state, with the charity banking its hope upon the cells remaining alive while preserved at -196C, so that when thawed out in the future, they could be revived and cultured to create fresh cell lines.A spokesperson for the charity said: "Although it may sound like science fiction, this technology is already developed in mice, demonstrating its potential to assist reproduction in other animal species too." In April, the cells were carefully removed from the liquid nitrogen storage tanks and four years after the rhino's death, the team have successfully cultured these and have grown new cell Morgan, the lab technician behind this success, said: "These cells represent living DNA from this rhino that is readily available for conservation use even though the rhino itself is deceased." Nature's SAFE, described as a "bio bank", has now stored biological samples from 300 species, including 37 which are critically endangered and four which are extinct in the ambition is to save animals from extinction by protecting the genetic diversity of wild animal species and supporting technologies, like artificial insemination and in-vitro fertilisation, to maintain and restore healthy animal populations. Debbie Rolmanis, chief operations officer, said: "By preserving and cultivating skin cells from threatened species, we are building a living library of genetic material that can be used to help restore genetic diversity to declining animal populations and prevent extinction. "The key benefit of utilising skin cells is that we can obtain them easily and continue to regenerate them indefinitely; they are not a finite resource. This provides a powerful, proven way to protect DNA within a functional cell." Commenting on the reanimation of the rhino's cells, Tullis Matson, founder and chair of the charity, said: "This could be an absolute game-changer moving forward. Now we've proven that this rhino's cells are truly in a living state even though she passed away almost four years ago. "This is a powerful tool for protecting many more of our critically endangered species; animals like the mountain chicken frog or Lake Patzcuaro salamander, which otherwise might have fallen into extinction, could be saved using these new bio-banking technologies. "We are over the moon - this brings hope not just to the southern white rhino, but to any species on the brink!" Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Fox News
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
SCOOP: House Republicans request ban on federally funded 'transgender animal' experiments in 2026 budget
FIRST ON FOX: A group of House Republicans are requesting Fiscal Year 2026 spending bills to include language prohibiting federal funding for transgender experiments on animals. Republican Reps. Paul Gosar, Elijah Crane, Abraham J. Hamadeh of Arizona, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Brandon Gill of Texas, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Pete Stauber of Minnesota and Troy E. Nehls of Texas are urging the chairman and ranking member of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies to prohibit transgender experiments on animals in its FY2026 appropriations bill. House Republicans have requested the committee include the following language: "None of the funds made available by this or any other Act thereafter may be used for research on vertebrate animals for the purpose of studying the effects of drugs, surgery, or other interventions to alter the human body (including by disrupting the body's development, inhibiting its natural functions, or modifying its appearance) to no longer correspond to its biological sex." The letter, addressed to Chairman Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., and Ranking Member Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., points to the dozens of National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants issued during former President Joe Biden's administration that are funding "wasteful and disturbing experiments to create 'transfeminine' and 'transmasculine' lab animals using invasive surgeries and hormone therapies." "The transgender animals are then wounded, shocked, injected with street drugs and vaccines, and subjected to other disturbing procedures," the House Republicans said in the letter, as Fox News Digital reported earlier this year. "President Trump has personally criticized these experiments on several occasions, and the Department of Government Efficiency has canceled millions in NIH grants funding transgender animal testing. However, many of these NIH grants funding gender transitions for lab animals are still active," House GOP members said. President Donald Trump condemned transgender animal experiments during his joint address to Congress in March. The White Coat Waste Project, a government watchdog group that testified about transgender animal experiments on Capitol Hill earlier this year, told Fox News Digital there are still "29 active taxpayer-funded grants that have been used to fund transgender animal tests." "We urge you to include the language above in the FY26 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies bill to ensure no more taxpayer dollars are wasted to fund transgender animal tests," the Republicans said in the letter. The White Coat Waste Project, in a statement to Fox News Digital, touted their role in halting taxpayer-funded "transgender animal tests," and celebrated the House Republicans' bill, led by Gosar, to stop more federally funded experiments. "Thanks to White Coat Waste's viral investigations and collaboration with Rep. Paul Gosar and others in Congress, the Trump Administration has slashed spending on wasteful experiments that subject lab animals to invasive surgeries and hormone therapies to crudely mimic gender transitions in kids and adults and then wound, shock and inject the animals with vaccines and overdoses of sex party drugs," Justin Goodman, Senior Vice President of White Coat Waste Project, said. "These Trump cuts have already saved thousands of lab animals and millions of tax dollars, but dozens more NIH grants that funnel tax dollars to disturbing transgender animal tests are still active. Taxpayers shouldn't be forced to foot the bill for wasteful and cruel transgender animal tests, and Rep. Gosar's commonsense effort to permanently defund them will ensure they won't have to."
Reuters
09-05-2025
- Health
- Reuters
Health Rounds: Ultrasound triggers experimental 3D drug-delivery implants
May 9 (Reuters) - (To receive the full newsletter in your inbox for free sign up here) Ultrasound waves can penetrate through thick tissues and print medical implants inside a body, experiments in animals suggest. Researchers created 3D implants using focused ultrasound and ultrasound-responsive bioinks delivered via injection or catheter. The carefully guided ultrasound waves trigger localized heating, slightly above body temperature, that transforms the ink into a gel that can be printed into desired shapes and tailored for functions such as drug delivery and tissue replacement, according to a report published on Thursday in Science, opens new tab. Furthermore, the ultrasound imaging allows for real-time monitoring and customized pattern creation, the researchers said. In one experiment, the researchers printed drug-loaded biomaterials that delivered a chemotherapy drug to cancerous sites in a mouse bladder. They found substantially more tumor cell death for several days compared to animals that received the drug through direct injection. "We have already shown in a small animal that we can print drug-loaded hydrogels for tumor treatment," study leader Wei Gao of Caltech said in a statement. "Our next stage is to try to print in a larger animal model, and hopefully, in the near future, we can evaluate this in humans." A commentary, opens new tab published with the paper notes that refinements are still needed. 'Printing on organs that expand and contract, such as the lungs, heart, and stomach, presents additional challenges,' the commentary authors note. Healthcare workers who wash their scrubs at home may be unknowingly contributing to the spread of antibiotic-resistant infections in hospitals, researchers warned in a report published in PLoS One, opens new tab. To evaluate whether home washing machines successfully decontaminated healthcare worker uniforms, they washed contaminated fabric swatches in six different consumer-grade washing machines in hot water, using rapid and normal cycles. Half of the machines did not disinfect the clothing during a rapid cycle, while one third failed to clean sufficiently during the standard cycle. After each washing, DNA sequencing of biofilm samples from inside the machines revealed the presence of potentially pathogenic bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes. 'Our research shows that domestic washing machines often fail to disinfect textiles, allowing antibiotic-resistant bacteria to survive,' the report's authors said in a statement. Researchers also found that bacteria can develop resistance to domestic detergents, which also increased their resistance to certain antibiotics. They propose that the laundering guidelines given to healthcare workers should be revised to ensure that home washing machines are cleaning effectively. 'If we're serious about transmission of infectious disease via textiles and tackling antimicrobial resistance, we must rethink how we launder what our healthcare workers wear,' the researchers said. (This is an excerpt of the Health Rounds newsletter, where we present latest medical studies on Tuesdays and Thursdays. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox for free sign up here.)
