3 ms·
For diseases where the causal mechanism is known very well, mouse models aren't that bad: Rett syndrome, hemophilia, spinal muscular atrophy. It gets to be a p
by mjfl 6y ago
For diseases where the causal mechanism is known very well, mouse models aren't that bad: Rett syndrome, hemophilia, spinal muscular atrophy.
It gets to be a problem where the disease is poorly defined and the cause is unknown: Alzheimers, schizophrenia, ADHD, etc.
It is very important that people have this discrimination power and not jump to "All of this is bad" or "All of this is good".
- ghodith 6y agoAlso in a lot of cases it’s the best we’ve got. You might be able to use monkeys but even that doesn’t change a lot of the problems. If you move from animal models you aren’t going to suddenly be able to start experimenting on humans.
- bumby 6y agoVery good point. I always considered that Twitter profile as tongue-in-cheek, rather than being outright dismissive.