Report for: Are animal models predictive for humans?

Title	Are animal models predictive for humans?
Published in	Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine, January 2009
DOI	10.1186/1747-5341-4-2
Pubmed ID	19146696
Authors	Niall Shanks, Ray Greek, Jean Greek
Abstract	It is one of the central aims of the philosophy of science to elucidate the meanings of scientific terms and also to think critically about their application. The focus of this essay is the scientific term predict and whether there is credible evidence that animal models, especially in toxicology and pathophysiology, can be used to predict human outcomes. Whether animals can be used to predict human response to drugs and other chemicals is apparently a contentious issue. However, when one empirically analyzes animal models using scientific tools they fall far short of being able to predict human responses. This is not surprising considering what we have learned from fields such evolutionary and developmental biology, gene regulation and expression, epigenetics, complexity theory, and comparative genomics.

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Twitter Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 77 tweeters who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.

Geographical breakdown

Country	Count	As %
United States	11	14%
United Kingdom	9	12%
France	5	6%
Italy	3	4%
Spain	2	3%
Canada	2	3%
Australia	2	3%
Norway	1	1%
South Africa	1	1%
Other	3	4%
Unknown	38	49%

Demographic breakdown

Type	Count	As %
Members of the public	64	83%
Scientists	6	8%
Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors)	4	5%
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals)	3	4%

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 796 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country	Count	As %
United Kingdom	5	<1%
United States	4	<1%
Italy	2	<1%
South Africa	2	<1%
Spain	2	<1%
Canada	1	<1%
Sri Lanka	1	<1%
Belgium	1	<1%
Russia	1	<1%
Other	2	<1%
Unknown	775	97%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status	Count	As %
Student > Bachelor	174	22%
Student > Ph. D. Student	158	20%
Student > Master	135	17%
Researcher	110	14%
Student > Doctoral Student	37	5%
Other	97	12%
Unknown	85	11%

Readers by discipline	Count	As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences	143	18%
Medicine and Dentistry	115	14%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology	91	11%
Engineering	61	8%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science	44	6%
Other	213	27%
Unknown	129	16%

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 204. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 26 March 2021.

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Are animal models predictive for humans?

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