THE OFFICE OF RESEARCH

ANIMAL RESEARCH AND CARE

Frequently Asked Questions About Animal Research and Care at UCSF

1. Why does UCSF conduct research using animals?

UCSF is dedicated to saving lives and improving health, and the campus community addresses this mission by conducting advanced biomedical research, educating graduate students in health care, and providing patient care.

Biomedical research is the broad area of science that looks for ways to prevent and treat diseases that cause illness and death in people and in animals. This general field of research includes many areas in both the life and physical sciences, but UCSF focuses on the life sciences.

Advances in understanding and treating disease take place by studying interactions among molecules, cells, tissues, organs and the environment. UCSF researchers study these interactions in cell cultures, computer models, and animals.

Nine out of 10 times, computer models and cell cultures work well for a research protocol. But sometimes the biological interactions being studied are too complex for even the most sophisticated computers to model. Animal research takes place because there are parallels between human and animal physiology.

UCSF considers the use of animals in research critical for making progress in some aspects of the biomedical sciences, and the University fully supports the work of faculty who conduct research involving the use of animals.

In addition to the benefits to human health, animal research has helped in treating health problems in animals, such as development of vaccines for rabies and distemper and treatments for leukemia and heartworm.

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