{"id":235,"date":"2010-01-21T11:29:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-21T10:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=235"},"modified":"2010-01-21T11:29:48","modified_gmt":"2010-01-21T10:29:48","slug":"a-fish-on-a-petri-dish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/01\/21\/a-fish-on-a-petri-dish\/","title":{"rendered":"A Fish on a Petri Dish"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not so long ago, I heard a research scientist talking about the work he was doing and its context in the discipline.\u00a0 He was looking at a particular set of genes that were implicated in cancer, and was interested in manipulating those genes as a means of controlling tumor formation.\u00a0 He wanted to work on zebrafish.<\/p>\n

There was a number of advantages to zebrafish, he said.\u00a0 For one thing, they’re closely enough related to humans to have the right genes, and so engineering cancer in them ought to provide a decent model for its analogue in humans.\u00a0 The other advantage had to do with their welfare; zebrafish, bless ’em, not being the most neurologically complex of animals, they are less likely to suffer as a result of the experiments, or less likely to suffer to the same degree,\u00a0than would be, say, mice or rats.<\/p>\n

The problem was this: the accepted model for the kind of work he was doing is the mouse model.\u00a0 The speaker found, as a result, that he was effectively forced to use mice – if he didn’t, the chances of getting his research published fell dramatically.\u00a0 That is to say, he faced a paradox: he could reduce suffering by switching species, but in doing so, he’d run the risk that any suffering he did still cause would be entirely in vain, because the research wouldn’t be accepted.\u00a0 So he had either to pursue research that he thought unnecessarily harmful just in order for it not to be wasted; or he had to spend time that he could have spent curing cancer establishing the viability of the zebrafish model, in the hope of generating a massive culture change across the leading oncological journals.\u00a0 Neither of these was an enticing prospect.<\/p>\n

Still: there’s cause for optimism.\u00a0 A team at MIT and another at Harvard<\/a> have been looking at zebrafish as models for human brain activity\u00a0– again, simple and unlike us as they may be, they are close enough on\u00a0a molecular level.\u00a0 So it looks like the person to whom I was listening may have allies around the world.\u00a0 Given that – I assume – no researcher wants to cause more suffering than is necessary, this seems like a wholly good thing.\u00a0 If we can ditch rodents in favour of zebrafish, it’s tempting to think that we should.\u00a0 And the more scientists are willing to stick out their necks with a piscine model, the quicker it’ll be accepted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not so long ago, I heard a research scientist talking about the work he was doing and its context in the discipline.\u00a0 He was looking at a particular set of genes that were implicated in cancer, and was interested in manipulating those genes as a means of controlling tumor formation.\u00a0 He wanted to work on […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[511,1],"tags":[317],"class_list":["post-235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news","category-uncategorized","tag-research"],"yoast_head":"\nA Fish on a Petri Dish - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/01\/21\/a-fish-on-a-petri-dish\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Fish on a Petri Dish - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Not so long ago, I heard a research scientist talking about the work he was doing and its context in the discipline.\u00a0 He was looking at a particular set of genes that were implicated in cancer, and was interested in manipulating those genes as a means of controlling tumor formation.\u00a0 He wanted to work on [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/01\/21\/a-fish-on-a-petri-dish\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-01-21T10:29:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2010-01-21T10:29:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/01\\\/21\\\/a-fish-on-a-petri-dish\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/01\\\/21\\\/a-fish-on-a-petri-dish\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\"},\"headline\":\"A Fish on a Petri Dish\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-01-21T10:29:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-01-21T10:29:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/01\\\/21\\\/a-fish-on-a-petri-dish\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":425,\"commentCount\":140,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Research\"],\"articleSection\":[\"In the News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/01\\\/21\\\/a-fish-on-a-petri-dish\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/01\\\/21\\\/a-fish-on-a-petri-dish\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/01\\\/21\\\/a-fish-on-a-petri-dish\\\/\",\"name\":\"A Fish on a Petri Dish - 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