Research & medical benefits

Researching for a cure for multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most widespread disabling neurological condition of young adults, particularly women, around the world with around 2.3 million people living with MS globally. In MS, the protective insulating myelin sheaths that cover nerve fibres in the brain and the spinal cord are destroyed.

Researching stroke using zebrafish

Dr Paul Kasher from Manchester University is trying to understand the immediate pathological responses to stroke in the brain and is screening for potential drugs to treat these responses by using zebrafish larvae to model what happens in a human.

How do you study stress in an animal?

“When you do stress research you need to think about two elements: how do I induce stress, how do I measure the consequences of it?”

Haemophilia, the royal disease

Haemophilia is a rare, inherited bleeding disorder in which blood cannot clot normally. Long known as the "Royal Disease", haemophilia affected generations of royal families in England, Prussia and Russia, undoubtedly changing the course of history.

10 years of rat research – how stroke studies have evolved

Prof Allan Stuart has been studying rats in the context of stroke research for over 25 years now.

The Nipah Virus – a rare but deadly disease

Nipah virus kills people, at the moment outbreaks are rare

Recent advances in cancer research

Immunotherapy, mice and treatment

Primate research in 2018

Heart disease, vaccines, and Parkinson's

Northern Ireland Animal Research Numbers, 2017

2017 animal research numbers for Northern Ireland have been published

Migrating small birds flying at 4000m

New research shows that migrating birds fly as high as 4,000 metres above sea level.

Tracking killer T cells in pigs for flu vaccine development

Uses antibodies created in Babraham pigs to track immune response to flu.

Killer fungus comes from Korea

Genetic clues reveal origins of killer fungus behind the ‘amphibian plague’

This month in animal research March 2018

A selection of the news items we covered in our social media this month

This month in animal research August 17

News from the month

World Parkinson’s Disease Day 2017

11 April is World Parkinson’s Disease Day, held every year on James Parkinson’s birthday to raise awareness of the disease and the research being done to alleviate it.