As an academic neuroscientist doing animal experiments, my hope is that animal research will eventually be obsolete, but think we are 1-2 centuries away from th

As an academic neuroscientist doing animal experiments, my hope is that animal research will eventually be obsolete, but think we are 1-2 centuries away from the required technology to do mechanistic and ethical experiments in ourselves. The article points out some questionable experiments but left out what we have learned/developed using animal models. This includes sars-cov-2 vaccines [1], the molecular identity of neurotransmitters [2], and gene therapies for SMA1, which typically kills children before their fifth birthday [3]. Animal activist's hearts are in the right place and we try to treat them as ethically as we can. I personally known several patients with ALS who have died and feel incredible urgency as a scientist. Animal testing is currently highly effective and irreplaceable. I would urge people who's perspective on animal testing is shaped by interactions with their pets to volunteer with charities that aid families with seriously ill children [4]. 1 https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/08/america-facing-monkey-shortage/615799/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/08/america-... 2 https://journals.physiology.org/doi/pdf/10.1152/classicessays.00026.2005 https://journals.physiology.org/doi/pdf/10.1152/classicessay... 3 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1706198 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1706198 4 https://www.rmhc.org/ https://www.rmhc.org/