Whether or not many people agree with it in the UK, chemical analysis has benefited from animal testing. It has provided laboratories across the country with the opportunity to explore different forms of scientific research. However, that could be about to change with a new method that will benefit labs and be supported by animal rights activists and the public.

According to a study in Toxicological Sciences (via EurekAlert!), it has identified that scientists might be able to better predict the toxicity of new chemicals through data analysis. Of course, that means that lab workers will not need to conduct their tests on animals.

In the study, the researchers created a database that compiled known chemicals and used it to map the different toxic properties in chemical structures. It would allow for toxic properties in the new chemical compounds to be predicted through cross-referencing with the chemicals already found in the database.

You might be sceptical of this approach, but the researchers found that this method was much more accurate than what could be achieved through testing on animals.

Professor Thomas Hartung, the Doerenkamp-Zbinden chair and professor in the department of environmental health and engineering at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, commented: “These results are a real eye-opener – they suggest that we can replace many animal tests with computer-based prediction and get more reliable results.

“Our automated approach clearly outperformed the animal test, in a very solid assessment using data on thousands of different chemicals and tests.”

Professor Hartung also added that this approach is “big news” for toxicology.