Computational methods (in silico) and stem cells as alternatives to animals in research

Medical sciences rely on the use of animals to test various drugs and therapeutics before proceeding with human trials. Advancement of research and development in the medical field has increased the number of animals used. Ethical issues regarding the involvement of animals during scientific experiments and pain and distress faced by animals have been a debated topic for a long time. Besides the primary concern of ethics, there are other disadvantages of animal experimentation like the requirement of a skilled workforce, human resources to monitor long-term effects of a drug, time-consuming protocols, different physiologies, and high cost of testing. There are various alternative options to overcome the drawbacks of animal experiments, avoid unethical procedures, and maximize the production of new drugs by decreasing the time of their screening. For using animals in laboratory experiments, a 3Rs strategy is followed across the world, which is reduction, refinement, and replacement. In this chapter, we discuss alternatives to animal experimentation focusing mainly on in silico and stem cell-based methods. An integrated approach to utilizing bioinformatics tools and stem cells would give an insight into minimizing the use of animals in scientific experiments and maximizing the application of other options.