{"id":542499,"date":"2026-07-10T09:43:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T09:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/542499\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T09:43:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T09:43:14","slug":"this-scientist-just-created-a-virtual-mouse-to-replace-animal-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/542499\/","title":{"rendered":"This Scientist Just Created A ‘Virtual Mouse’ To Replace Animal Testing"},"content":{"rendered":"

A research scientist has created an AI-powered \u201cvirtual mouse\u201d to replace traditional animal testing<\/a> in the emerging field of nanomedicine.<\/p>\n

Using the virtual mouse in the development of nanomedicine is faster, more affordable, and more ethical than using a living creature.<\/p>\n

Read more: The \u2018Chickenification\u2019 Of Fish: Is Aquaculture The Next Poultry Farming?<\/a><\/p>\n

Jimeng Wu, a doctoral student in the Nanomaterials in Health and Technology and Society labs at Empa, Switzerland, developed a virtual mouse<\/a> that draws on 18 pre-existing studies to model interventions without the need for new animal tests.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis AI-supported screening tool allows researchers to virtually test which type of nanoparticles are best suited for a specific task before they even manufacture these particles,\u201d Wu said, as reported by News Wise<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wu\u2019s next steps include feeding the virtual mouse with additional study data and then verifying it to increase the overall quality of its predictions. Her future research will also focus on a \u201cbridge strategy\u201d to apply the models of her mouse to a human model.<\/p>\n

Switzerland, the home of Empa (the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology), has strict animal welfare legislation that requires researchers to keep animal experiments to the absolute minimum necessary.<\/p>\n

Emerging technologies and alternatives, including AI, are increasingly used in research due to their many benefits. Other cruelty-free options include 3D bioprinted tissues<\/a>, which can be used to create realistic samples, and organ-on-a-chip<\/a> systems.<\/p>\n

Read more: Scientists Just Reduced People\u2019s Biological Age With A Four-Week Diet<\/a><\/p>\n

Nanotechnology, nanomedicine, and alternatives to animal testing<\/p>\n

\"PhotoAdobe Stock AI modeling is one of the many established and emerging cruelty-free alternatives to animal testing<\/p>\n

The field of nanotechnology is focused on designing and using materials at an extremely small scale, the nanoscale, which includes matter from one to 100 nanometres in size. For context, 100 nanometres is approximately 1,000 times thinner than a single human hair, while DNA is just two nanometres wide.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, nanomedicine is the application of nanotechnology in healthcare<\/a> by using tiny materials or devices to prevent, diagnose, and treat illness.<\/p>\n

Nanomedicine represents a promising avenue of treatment for certain cancers and infectious diseases, though historically, live mice have been essential in modeling how nanomaterials are distributed throughout the body.<\/p>\n

Emerging technologies and alternatives to animal testing, including Wu\u2019s virtual mouse, have the potential to streamline and expedite future nanomedicine.<\/p>\n

PBN runs a sponsored content model. To explore how you can get featured, please email [email\u00a0protected]<\/a> or visit everkinddigital.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A research scientist has created an AI-powered \u201cvirtual mouse\u201d to replace traditional animal testing in the emerging field…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[230356,19432,103,61,60,43,82],"class_list":["post-542499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-animal-testing","tag-ethics","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}