REPLACEMENT NEWS June 2019: Issue 122
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REPLACEMENT NEWS June 2019: Issue 122 Inside Research update: skin cancer Your 2019 Summer Students News from our researchers Contents Welcome 3 Research update: skin cancer 4 Meet Kerri Palmer, breast cancer researcher 6 Fabulous fundraisers 8 Your 2019 Summer Students 10 Former Summer Students – where are they now? 12 Global replacement news 14 Meet our new Scientific Advisory Panel 15 Breast cancer: research update 16 Fundraising while you shop 18 Stop press – news from our researchers 19 Animal Free Research UK Formerly Dr Hadwen Trust Portmill House, Portmill Lane, Hitchin, Hertfordshire, SG5 1DJ Tel: 01462 436 819 [email protected] www.animalfreeresearchuk.org ©Animal Free Research UK 2019 A registered charity in England and Wales (No. 1146896) and Scotland (No. SC045327) A company limited by guarantee (No. 08015625) in England and Wales Welcome to the future of medical research Welcome to your latest issue All this amazing animal free of Replacement News which research is only possible introduces you to this year’s because of compassionate summer students – the next people like you who know that generation of animal free forcing animals to suffer in scientists. research into human illnesses With your help, they’re hoping is cruel and outdated. Together, to spend their summers in our growing community is laboratories up and down showing the world that there the country gaining valuable is another way to find cures for experience in the latest animal diseases, a way that is no pain, free research techniques. You all gain. can read more about their Thank you. We simply couldn’t exciting plans on page 10. do it without you. Also inside is the latest on the Carla Owen brilliant cancer research projects Chief Executive you’re supporting across the P.S. A huge thank you to country. There’s an update from everyone who sponsored me our Animal Replacement Centre to run the Vitality Big Half (The ARC) on page 4. And you marathon – in total we raised can hear about our visit to your an amazing £4,000 on the very breast cancer research project blustery day. You can read more at the University of Aberdeen on on page 9. page 16, and get to know Kerri, the lead researcher, on page 6. Welcome 3 Research update: skin cancer month at our Animal Replacement Centre You may remember that it was skin cancer awareness month in May. Sadly, in skin cancer research, We recently visited the experts, mice are often injected with Professor Mike Philpott, Dr chemicals or inflicted with Adrian Biddle, Dr Muhammad extreme sun burn by radiation to Rahman and Dr Gehad Youssef, give them skin cancer. Imagine at Queen Mary University the pain and distress they must London on your behalf, to find feel as their bodies develop out why they agree that the best tumours as a result. way to understand human skin cancer is to study it in human cells, rather than in mice. As well as being covered in fur, you may not know that mouse skin is also very thick, doesn’t have any sweat glands, and replicates much quicker than human skin. Mice are the most commonly used animal in skin cancer research, despite the crucial differences between mouse and human skin – including having Dr Adrian Biddle, Professor Mike Philpott, different responses to cancer Dr Muhammad Rahman and Dr Gehad Youssef treatments. Thanks to your generous support, our researchers at the “We want to accelerate Animal Replacement Centre scientific research and of Excellence are focusing on you do that by developing developing human models of models that are very close human disease to study the to the human setting most common type of skin cancer in the UK, basel cell – not add these extra carcinoma, alongside head and intermediate steps with neck cancer. animal experiments.” Dr Gehad Youssef 4 Research update: skin cancer Cruel animal experiments You’re sure to agree that are also scientifically much research which focuses on harder to control and harder to taking cells from humans reproduce. The advantages of into a carefully constructed using human models are hard human-like environment is to resist – they’re reproducible, a much more effective way controllable, closer to the of researching devastating human condition and could diseases like skin cancer than vastly reduce the time it takes forcing animals to suffer in for treatments to reach the experiments. clinic. Find out more about this “People don’t realise they have fascinating research and meet cured cancer in mice so many the scientists behind it by times, it’s not that difficult to do, watching our new videos at but when they translate it to the animalfreeresearchuk.org/ human setting it doesn’t work, cancer/fighting-cancer. because of the fundamental differences between humans and mice.” Dr Gehad Youssef The researchers at the Animal Replacement Centre are now improving their laboratory models to make them even more relevant to humans by taking tumour specimens donated directly from patients and growing them in 3D in a way that mimics the environment inside a human body. To make sure their human model is as accurate as possible, they also compare the cells that they’re growing in a dish with a preserved specimen of the original human tumour. Research update: skin cancer 5 Meet Kerri Palmer, breast cancer researcher PhD student Kerri is working hard to find better ways to prevent breast cancer thanks to your generous donations. We caught up with her during our visit to Aberdeen to see how she’s getting on. we can prevent it. So this project has the potential to make a real impact, benefit many people potentially at risk of breast cancer and hopefully help to reduce the number of people suffering from this destructive disease. Your research is completely animal free. Why is this crucial? Kerri, left, in the laboratory with supervisor, It is extremely important to me Professor Valerie Speirs that research doesn’t involve animals. At present, sadly it is Why is your breast cancer extremely rare to find projects research so important? that completely omit the use of As one of the most common animals but, in my opinion, it is cancers worldwide, breast the way forward for research. cancer is a major health issue. If we can produce new animal Despite vast amounts of free models, we can hopefully research into treatments, the prevent animals suffering number of people diagnosed unnecessarily and also produce with breast cancer is still more reliable and effective rising, and reliable strategies models for both prevention and to prevent it are few and far treatments of diseases. Much of between. the testing done on animals is What excites me most about difficult to translate into humans undertaking this PhD is that I am – our animal free models may contributing to filling a ‘gap’ in lead to more accurate and breast cancer research – how potentially faster treatments. 6 Meet Kerri Palmer What are you working on right now? My aim is to determine whether or not exposure to certain chemicals could lead to breast cancer. The particular chemicals I’m studying are called endocrine disrupting agents, which are environmental chemicals that can interfere with the body’s hormone Kerri with her rescue dog, Lottie system. Currently I am working to determine the optimum Where do you like to be when concentrations of these you’re not working? chemicals through experiments that monitor the growth of Competitive swimming – at human cells over time. This county and regional level – is will then allow me to examine something I spend many the effects of these damaging weekends doing, but I am also chemicals on cells within the a keen weightlifter and have breast. just started running. Scotland is a great place for walking, so I hope to continue to explore this Has anything shocked or beautiful country while I’m here. surprised you so far? Perhaps what is most The final word… surprising is that such small concentrations of the I would like to say thank you environmental chemicals very much to all Animal Free demonstrate an effect. Research UK supporters. Your This tells us that something generosity means that we can must be going on inside the continue to research animal free cells when they are exposed models with the aim of replacing to these chemicals. The animal experiments within chemicals are also found in scientific research. small concentrations in the Find out more about Kerri’s environment so there could be breast cancer research at: big implications for how we can animalfreeresearchuk.org/ prevent breast cancer. breast. Meet Kerri Palmer 7 Fabulous fundraisers Thank you so much to everyone raising funds and awareness about our work. You are all stars! Bude Group The Bude Group have done it again! This time Jackie Diffey (pictured) spearheaded the fundraising as she completed her 20km surf ski paddle on bank holiday Monday. Jackie was accompanied part of the way by her husband and other members of Bude Surf Life Saving Club, who helped keep up morale over the three and a half hours it took to complete the challenge. Alongside the paddle, volunteers ran a stall selling raffle tickets bringing the total raised on the day to £1,500! This is a huge boost to the Bude group’s diabetes fund, which stands at just over £2,000 so far this year. This incredible group has lots of other events planned and we’re excited to see what this year will bring! London group The lovely London group held a stall at Richmond Fair last month. They had a great day talking to lots of people about our work and also raised £140 for us.