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Technology Takeover- are Virtual Animals the New Experimental Standard?

 Biologists at Plymouth university have been working in conjunction with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to examine the effectiveness of new 'virtual-fish' as model organisms. It is hoped that the cultured 'fish' could help test for toxicity and concentration of manmade chemicals. 

This heading caught my eye, especially since many of the papers read in our course relied on live amphibians or other organisms to examine the impacts of pollution, bioaccumulation, or (with less mortality) factors like the impacts of clutch density. Model organisms are a crucial aspect of applicable research- they allow us to generalize results across species and develop baselines for testing. They also mature quickly, which is beneficial for timely research. Could this all be changing? 

The university has developed a method for removing cells from the liver of rainbow trout, and manipulating them into a 3-dimensional spheroid, which behaves much like natural animal tissue. These cell spheres are more reactive and more reflective of entire organisms than typical experimental cells grown in lab settings. They have many basic biochemical processes- including the ability to metabolize the surrounding environment. This may be able to give researchers a better idea of how toxic chemicals  impact an organism- without having to subject the animal to said chemical. There is a plan in motion to progress the development of the cell, coaxing it to form gills and a gut system. 

In 2011, 59,000 live fish were subjected to ecotoxicology experiments in the UK alone, and increasing government regulation could demand the testing of more and more contaminants in the coming years- exponentially increasing the need for model organisms. Not only could cells from just a few fish generate a multitude of testable spheroids, but the spheres last significantly longer than other cultivated cells. This means that far fewer fish will be used for testing, and the ones that donate cells will still not be directly subjected to any toxicant treatments. 

This is an interesting first look at what the future of ecological and biological research entails. Personally, I feel that a move away from experimental animals may make results and research itself more appealing to a general audience- especially those who voice ethical objections to the use of live organisms. There could also be potential implications for ecotoxicology specifically. What comes to mind is the almost infinite combinations of different pharmaceutical, agricultural and industrial pollutants that have additive effects when combined in the environment. Using traditional methods, time simply would not allow the close examination of the multitude of developmental and ecological impacts caused by each subset of contaminants. If development of realistic spheroid test subjects is rapid and effective, it may expand the range of possible research, allowing us to grasp a better idea of the environmental implications. 


Citations

“Alternatives: Virtual Fish.” University of Plymouth, www.plymouth.ac.uk/research/animals/alternatives-virtual-fish.

Comments

  1. Trevor UnderwoodMarch 26, 2021 at 5:07 PM

    That's incredible. My mind went to papers we read in class as well, particularly the killifish papers. The fact that these spheroids can perform some biologic processes on top of being responsive is mind-blowing. For ecotoxicology purposes this is definitely the future. Do you think that these spheroid can exhibit some behavioral responses (i.e., non-cognitive behavioral responses)? I love your point that this shift could make research more appealing to everyone. I haven't thought about how the methods of the study weigh on the reader, regardless of how amazing the results are.

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  2. August AndersonMarch 30, 2021 at 5:23 PM

    This is a really exciting peek into what the future of EcoDevo. Moving past the ethical issues of animal experimentation and manipulation will make the research much more accessible and will likely expand access to funding as well. One thing that worries me is the concern for ascertaining a realistic reaction norm from experiments involving these spheroids - do you think they'll be able to produce reactions to chemical stressors that can be comparable to what we see in nature? We talked a lot in class about trying to establish laboratory conditions that emulate the realism of nature as much as possible, and while this may move further away from it, it opens up so many more interesting questions about what is possible in the field of ecotoxicological experimentation.

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