UK moves forward with strategic plan to replace animal models with organ-chips and predictive AI in biomedical research

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The United Kingdom has taken an important step toward ending animal testing by releasing a national strategy to drastically reduce this type of practice. According to official data, 2.64 million scientific procedures involving animals were carried out in 2024, many causing pain, stress, or even death to the animals. Now, the government believes that modern technologies can finally reduce dependence on these experiments—something long awaited by animal rights advocates.

Recently, some types of testing had already been banned, such as those used in cosmetics. The novelty is that methods considered especially cruel, such as the forced swim test — in which rodents fight for survival in a container filled with water — will no longer receive new licenses. The plan also sets goals to end tests that apply corrosive substances directly to the eyes and skin.

However, the discussion is not simple. Other procedures, such as inducing tumors in mice to study cancer, are still widely accepted by society. For change to truly happen, the government needs to convince scientists and the public that modern alternatives can deliver results that are just as good — or even better — without causing suffering.

The good news is that these alternatives are already emerging. Technologies such as “organs-on-chips,” which simulate miniature parts of the human body, and artificial intelligence systems capable of predicting the toxic effects of drugs are proving increasingly effective. In addition to being more ethical, they can be faster, cheaper, and, in the future, make the UK a global leader in the development of scientific methods without animal cruelty.

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The UK government has presented a national strategy that aims to significantly reduce the use of animals in scientific experimentation, based on the perspective that technologies such as organ-on-a-chip and machine learning systems can reproduce human physiological responses with increasing accuracy. In 2024, there were 2.64 million scientific procedures involving animals, a figure that highlights the urgency of innovating less invasive and more accurate experimental models.

Among the measures, the decision not to grant new licenses for the forced swim test (FST) stands out, a method widely criticized for its aversive nature and limited translational relevance. The strategy also sets deadlines for ending the application of caustic agents to the eyes and skin. Despite this, practices such as the induction of tumorigenesis in rodents—essential for translational oncology—remain, reflecting the boundary between ethics and biomedical necessity.

Technological advances are central to the British plan. Organ-chip systems, composed of microfluidic networks containing human cells cultured to simulate physiological microenvironments, already demonstrate relevant predictive capacity for toxicology and pharmacokinetics. At the same time, AI models have achieved performance comparable to or superior to animal testing in predicting toxicity, following the same logic as successes such as protein structure prediction.

With a direct investment of £60 million, the government intends to validate alternative methodologies, measure their effectiveness against traditional methods, and map technological maturity milestones for the next ten years. In addition to the ethical impact, there are expectations of economic and competitive gains, considering that the US and the European Union are also moving towards reducing animal testing. Although 95% of animals used in the UK are rodents, birds, or fish, the plan reinforces that all these beings deserve equal moral consideration.

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Sources: The Guardian view on animal testing: we can stop sacrificing millions of lives for our own health | Editorial | The Guardian

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