Investigating the Latest Alternatives to Animal Testing

Kevin Williams started working at the U of M Veterinary Medical Center in 2005 as an undergraduate, doing odd jobs around the hospital as a student worker. That role evolved into doing a bit of diagnostic work, helping with small research projects, and contributing to published articles.  

He worked for several years before deciding to go to graduate school. He wanted to conduct more research but knew that he wasn't able to in his current position. “I needed to seek out a higher level of education to push myself in that direction.”

As a University of Minnesota employee, Kevin was eligible for the Regents Tuition Benefit Program. “I realized that the U pays a really good portion of graduate school,” he says about his decision to return. “All right, this is my next path. It might take me a while, but that's okay.”

Following His Curiosity Across the Sciences

Kevin entered the Master of Biological Sciences (MBS) program in 2017. On top of courses related to his work at the Veterinary Medical Center, such as Fundamentals of Molecular Diagnostics, he studied topics like clinical physiology, foundations of health informatics and applied biostatistics. He was able to take a combination of online courses and courses that met either early or late in the day.

“The flexibility of the program was key,” he says. His MBS advisor (Brad Fruen, now retired) encouraged him to take what interested him. Kevin, who has been a certified medical technologist for almost 10 years, was looking to apply his certification on a more human level.
 
“Being able to choose my own classes and develop an individualized degree plan allowed me to have flexibility as my goals changed throughout the program.”  

When it was time to start preparing for his capstone project, Kevin consulted with his new advisor, Sarah Jaumann. He and his wife would be having their second child right in the middle of his project, and he was concerned about balancing his time. He decided to take a year off. 

When he came back, he had to consider his options. Should he jump right back into his capstone that was to focus on the lab work that he had been doing at the veterinary hospital? 

The short answer was no. What Kevin did was pursue what he was curious about. He ended up taking a pharmacology class, which would change the direction of his capstone paper.

Uncovering Positive Discoveries

“I've always been into nature and animals,” Kevin says. He volunteered as a junior docent at Como Zoo as a teenager, working with both the public and behind the scenes with the animals. 

Animal research was always a concern in the back of his mind. How do we transition out of utilizing animals so much, he wondered. "Until I took that pharmacology class, I never really put enough thought into it.”

During the class, the students completed a “mini-capstone” project. Kevin chose to research the regulatory aspects of pharmacology and alternatives to animal testing.

This exploration led him to decide on his MBS capstone project, titled The ineffectiveness of current animal models in preclinical drug trials: An innovative human-based approach through organ-on-chip. (Organ on chip, or organ on a chip, technology involves reproducing the physiological environment of human organs or tissues on a micro-scale. It allows for the testing of drugs on a human-relevant platform and eventually could lead to more specialized treatments based on an individual's genetics and disease profile.¹)

In his capstone paper, Kevin discusses research that suggests that organ-on-chip technology can be just as effective as traditional in vitro methodologies in early drug testing. This would “reduce the reliance on animal toxicity models and has the potential to revolutionize the drug industry and have far reaching impacts on personalized medicine."

The research shows that chips are producing very similar results to direct human drug testing, even though there are different researchers and different groups manufacturing the chips. “On top of that,” Kevin adds, “they've been able to go back to drugs that have been on the market for years and show the same potential effects. So it is a very promising aspect.”

Progress is slowly being made. Kevin says the FDA has changed some of their regulatory guidelines so that researchers can start to use these methods. And some animal rights groups are starting to promote the organ-on-chip method. 

“Even though it's been around for almost 10 years, research takes forever. It's going to take a while, but once you get there, not only could you get rid of animal testing, you can scale it and move faster through the regulatory pathways because you're getting results that can apply to actual human patients.”

What's Next

Kevin graduated this past May and continues to work in the Veterinary Medical Center as a medical technologist (sometimes called a medical laboratory scientist). His team conducts routine lab work—hematology, chemistry, coagulation, etc.—for hospitalized patients, as well as patients seen in general practice and by outside veterinarians.

While he would be interested in pursuing more research into organ-on-chip and other testing innovations, he loves his current role. “I would love to do more research, but our patients need help on a daily basis.”

Pro Tips for Busy Students

1) Manage your time. When Kevin began the MBS program, he and his wife didn’t have kids, but he was working full-time. “We had to make sure we had really good communication. I generally tried to set aside an hour or two every day during the week right after work to study.”

With kids, they had to schedule their time in a more  structured way, and communication became even more important. He changed his work week to three ten-hour shifts instead of four or five eight-hour shifts and studied mostly on the weekends. 

“All of that really helped to keep me on track with the capstone paper, on top of making very detailed outlines. That was all my wife's help. She's a dentist and has gone through all of the fun of dental school and having to do detailed notes. She helped keep me on track.”

2) Take care of yourself. “You can't just do schoolwork. You have to let your brain relax a little bit. I was going to stress myself out going into the capstone paper with a second child on the way, and I told myself, no, I just need to take a break.”

Memorable Course

Clinical Physiology with Lisa Anderson

“The class is actually for nursing anesthesia students. Being able to challenge myself against those high-level nursing students really showed me that I could excel in this coursework, even though it had been so long since I was in school. 

"The way the class was taught was really different. Instead of just listening to a lecture, we were in the same small groups of six to eight for the entire semester. We would have lectures and then have group discussions. The exams were a solo part. Then you would take the exam again as a group and reflect on it. It was a really collaborative way of going through a class, which I really enjoyed.”
 

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