Studies in animal models are essential for fundamental knowledge and medically relevant developments. Although more and more research is helping to replace animal experiments or to reduce the number of animals involved, a complete replacement of animal experiments is not yet foreseeable. These experiments are still essential to gain knowledge and to develop new therapeutic approaches and methods. Here, our employees tell you why animal research is still necessary and what they pay particular attention to when caring for and working with animals.

David Poeppel, managing director: “Responsible and thoughtfully performed animal research is foundational for a deeper understanding of basic and clinical phenomena, including for those of us who do not work on animal studies.“

Hermann Cuntz, research group leader: “Animal experiments combined with computational models are at the core of good theories that serve basic biology and applied medicine. Therefore we at ESI use computer models to refine the choice of experimental approaches and are a major collaboration partner of the 3R Centre in Giessen. It is our goal to implement the 3R concept (Replace, Reduce, Refine) sustainably and thereby contribute to a reduction in the number of laboratory animals.”

Wolf Singer, research group leader: “For the treatment of neurological and psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia, autism or epilepsy, we need to understand how a healthy brain works. Since we can only study the structure and function of human brains to a limited extent, studies on animal nervous systems will remain indispensable for the foreseeable future if we want to help people with these disorders.”

Martha Nari Havenith, research group leader: “We know all our mice ‘personally’ – each mouse will have individual food preferences (there are clear fans of raisins, peanuts, or cereal, but almost everyone love Nutella), and also learning styles (some mice like a challenge in their task, others are easily discouraged by failure, some easily adapt to new twists of the game, others have to learn all over again). In our virtual-reality tasks, the mice really learn with us – and happy mice are smarter mice!”

Jean Laurens, research group leader: “Animal experiments are the only way to observe the working brain at the neuronal level. I am grateful to the animals that allow me to gather this priceless knowledge: they are wonderful creatures and I pledge to treat them responsibly and lovingly.”

Further information

Interested in finding out more about animal research at the ESI? Then you might want to continue reading here.