Center for Contemporary Sciences

11/22/2025

Great news! CDC will phase out all experiments on monkeys. Now we need to get all animals out of these horrific laboratories. https://www.science.org/content/article/exclusive-cdc-end-all-monkey-research?fbclid=IwdGRleAOOxqxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEe2Jhf_u7Ex2CkMl8dE5ToPQ6mbm5N3q3zYbHz2PbWDEUqdHbNhGAlLuD71U8_aem_FUolDkz240-tYTmuHWhdPw

Studies related to HIV and other infectious diseases will be phased out, sources say; fate of the agency's animals remains unclear

04/30/2025

Great news! Following the steps taken by FDA, NIH announces it will prioritize human-relevant research over animal testing. As we have been saying for some time, replacing animal experiments with human-relevant methods is a win-win for animals and human health.

New initiative aims to reduce use of animals in NIH-funded research.

05/03/2024

This week is - a week dedicated to raising awareness about a persecuted group of primates. Macaques are the most common non-human primates used in research and testing. As a result of the use of these animals, the long-tailed and southern pig-tailed macaque populations have declined between 40-50% over the past few decades.

05/01/2024

How to Make Drugs and Feel Great About Everything is a new documentary featuring Dr. Aysha Akhtar on from Keegan Kuhn, co-director of and What the Health. See the link for its current Indiegogo campaign and the available trailer:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/how-to-make-drugs-and-feel-great-about-everything #/

documentary exploring drug development and the outdated use of animals in research. | Check out 'HOW TO MAKE DRUGS and feel great about everything' on Indiegogo.

04/30/2024

Researchers at Tsinghua University are working on lung cancer assembloids from cells derived from patients’ tumors that can accurately mimic the clinical outcomes of patients. The lung cancer assembloids “reproduce the molecular, cellular, and functional diversity of the original tumors…” and shows the potential of the assembled being able to predict .

https://www.genengnews.com/topics/cancer/assembloids-model-patient-specific-lung-cancers-with-tumor-microenvironments/

The lung cancer assembloid model can predict personalized treatments and has the potential to drive personalized lung cancer therapies.

04/26/2024

CCS President, Florina Gobel's latest blog post looks at how computational models can be a way forward for and .

https://contemporarysciences.org/reimagining-biomedical-research-with-computational-models/

CCS President discusses computational modeling and how it fits into biomedical research and can bring an end to animal testing.

04/23/2024

In March Congress passed the FY2024 Appropriations bills. These bills along with their accompanying report language included some wins for animals and human-relevant research.

In our most recent blog post, Public Policy Manager, Mikalah Singer, discusses some of these wins and CCS' role in having the report language included.

https://contemporarysciences.org/updates-from-the-fy2024-appropriations-bills-and-accompanying-reports/

Wins for animals in the federal FY2024 Appropriations Bills and Report Language.

04/22/2024

Happy from CCS! Our organization is dedicated to unlocking the power of science to find solutions that improve the health and well-being of humans, animals, and the planet. 🌎 🌲

Photo credit: Alexander Lee, CCS Content Strategy & Salesforce Solutions Advisor

04/18/2024

Check out this great introduction to Cell Culture modeling techniques like , , and : https://www.the-scientist.com/understanding-the-3d-cell-culture-revolution-71786

3D cell culture techniques closely mimic in vivo conditions, generating more accurate data for disease modeling and drug toxicity testing.

04/14/2024

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is developing a that mimics the intricate interactions of cells in the heart. This can help study cardiovascular diseases.

https://loom.ly/UCNZ4GU

NIST has developed a system that mimics humanlike models for studying cardiovascular disease and aligns with national efforts to move away from animal testing.

04/12/2024

“Technology, using patient material to generate “mini-organs” in a dish, have revolutionized in vitro predictivity over conventional 2D cell cultures and animal models, which fail to recapitulate patient tumor biology either due to lack of cellular complexity or fundamental species differences.”

Interested in learning more about organoids? Registration is now open for a webinar featuring CSO of Hub Organoids, Sylvia F Boj.

Patient-derived organoids are viewed as the gold standard in bridging the gap between the lab and the clinic. Advancements in HUB Organoid Technology, using patient material to generate “mini-organs” in a dish, have revolutionized in vitro predictivity over conventional 2D cell cultures and anim...

04/10/2024

Researchers at the University of Toronto developed a model to better understand heart inflammation from .

https://www.utoronto.ca/news/heart-chip-model-used-glean-insights-covid-19-induced-heart-inflammation

Researchers at the University of Toronto and its partner hospitals have created a unique heart-on-a-chip model that is helping untangle the causes of COVID-19-induced heart inflammation and uncover strategies to reduce its impact.