Claudia talks to Thomas Hartung about animal testing in pharmacology and toxicology. They discuss how animal testing involves a weighing of values as well as some of the disruptive technologies that are providing alternatives to animal testing – including stem cell technologies and artificial intelligence.  

Date Recorded: 5 October 2022

Thomas Hartung, MD PhD, is the Doerenkamp-Zbinden-Chair for Evidence-based Toxicology in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, with a joint appointment at the Whiting School of Engineering. He also holds a joint appointment for Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Bloomberg School. He is adjunct affiliate professor at Georgetown University, Washington D.C.. In addition, he holds a joint appointment as Professor for Pharmacology and Toxicology at University of Konstanz, Germany; he also is Director of Centers for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) of both universities. CAAT hosts the secretariat of the Evidence-based Toxicology Collaboration and manages collaborative programs on Good Read-Across Practice, Good Cell Culture Practice, Green Toxicology, Developmental Neurotoxicity, Developmental Immunotoxicity, Microphysiological Systems and Refinement. As PI, he headed the Human Toxome project funded as an NIH Transformative Research Grant and the series of annual Microphysiological Systems World Summits starting in 2022 by 52 organizations. He is Field Chief Editor of Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence. He is the former Head of the European Commission’s Center for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM), Ispra, Italy, and has authored more than 620 scientific publications with more than 41,000 citations (h-index 105). His toxicology classes on COURSERA had more than 15,000 active learners. Connect with Thomas on Twitter (@ToxmasHartung). 

Featured: 

• Toxicology for the twenty-first century by Thomas Hartung
• A Roadmap for the Development of Alternative (Non-Animal) Methods for Systemic Toxicity Testing By David Basketter et al 
• Study Illustrates A Quicker And Less Expensive Way To Explore Gene-Plus-Environment Causes Of Autism Spectrum Disorder And Other Conditions via John Hopkins
•  A Johns Hopkins collaboration has demonstrated that the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, can infect and replicate within a human mini-brain model via John Hopkins
• The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money by John Maynard Keynes

 Animal Highlight: Rats -  Amanda talks about one of the most tested on animals in the world, rats. She discusses how rats have been used in labs and the standardization of their experiences. She contrasts that with the rich lifeworlds of rats who live freely and in multispecies communities. 

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