It's about proving
things wrong. But you can't do
that to science. Science is how we find out
the truth about the world. Yes, it is. But the way we do science
is often flawed. Well, not here,
it isn't. Carl and I are working on a very
exciting, very solid study about how Vitamin D affects
human memory retention. Oh. (squeaking) Yes, you are a good
little test subject. Actually, if you're trying
to learn about humans, he's a terrible
little test subject. (loud squeaking) Sorry. What? Everyone knows
testing on rodents is practically the same
as doing actual human trials. Yes, everyone
"knows" that. Too bad
they're wrong. Cool! I've always
wanted to be a B-A-L-B-C-J laboratory mouse. But what
are we doing here? The same thing we do
every night, Winnie. Ruining a common
misconception. (thunder crashes) Rodents make up 95%
of all animals used for biomedical
research in America. That's 20 to 30
million mice a year. Whoa, they must be such
effective test subjects. Actually,
they're not. Out of all clinical trials
based on mouse models, the results don't apply to
humans over 80% of the time. Well, time to file these. (Adam)
And those failed trials can cause hundreds of millions of dollars a piece. And this drives up
the cost of development. Meaning we get fewer
new drugs. Yeah, we're out of funding. (grumbling through phone) Well, then tell
the cancer patients they'll have
to wait, Pete! But how can that be? I read mice share
97% of DNA with humans. True, but that 3%
makes a big difference. Mouse metabolisms are seven
times faster. We have different
inflammation reactions. And, you know, people are over
3,000 times bigger. (gasps) (squeaking) (Adam)
And our bodies can have very different reactions
to medicine. In one extreme example
from 2006, a new cancer drug was tested in mice and
passed with flying colors. But when human subjects
were injected with just 1/500th of a mouse dosage, within hours,
all of the volunteers went into catastrophic,
multi-organ failure and had to be rushed
to the ICU. Oh. The truth is,
testing on mice just doesn't tell us
as much about humans
as we think it does. Jeez Louise. So, why do we even use mice
in the first place? Because they're cheap
and convenient. Compared to other
animal test subjects, mice are a bargain. And they're great in a lab
setting because they're easy to tame and store
and they breed like crazy. Congratulations! It's 100! Rodents are also super easy
to genetically customize. Want a mouse
with no immune system? Or how about one
that glows in the dark. Extra tumors
strike your fancy? You can have whatever model
of mouse you want. Finally, the Animal Welfare Act,
the only federal law that covers testing on animals
doesn't protect mice at all. (screaming) Oh, yeah, we can never get away
with this on a rabbit. So, even though we know
testing on mice is a problem, we keep doing it anyways
'cause it's easier? (woman) And at this point, it's almost impossible not to. Ah, Winnie, this is... Dr. Azra Raza, Director of the Myelodysplastic
Syndrome Center at Columbia! I traded six
Albert Einsteins for her. (Dr. Raza)
Thanks, Winnie! And thanks for keeping me
in mint condition. Medical science is almost entirely built around mouse testing. Researchers have been using mice since the 1800s. And students are taught on them from day one of school. And most
other testing methods are prohibitively expensive. You quite literally cannot
do a study without mice. At the moment
in the United States, the FDA will almost never approve a trial in humans unless researchers have done it in rodents first. The real problem is cancer
research has become so mouse centric, we cannot
replace rodent testing without overhauling
the whole system. Which is a shame. Because if we want
to cure cancer in humans, we should be studying
human cancer cells. We are wasting valuable resources and time on mice. (squeaking) Hey, come on!
This is a family show. (sighs) Thanks, Doctor Raza. You're welcome. And here's another tip. If you put me
in your bike spoke, it will sound like a motorcycle. (mimicking motor puttering)
