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Updated Sunday, April 20, 2008 0:00 am TWN, CNA

‘3D virtual guinea pig’ to be used for drug development

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- A government-run laboratory is close to developing an imagery database of guinea pigs that will allow “virtual animal testing,” reducing the cost of drug development and the demand for live laboratory animals, sources at the National Applied Research Laboratories (NARL) said yesterday.

The 3D-virtual guinea pig system was developed by NARL’s National Laboratory Animal Center (NLAC), which used true color image algorithms to reconstruct guinea pigs in a digitized environment. NLAR researchers said they have finished establishing the imagery data and will have the system ready for practical applications after some final adjustments are made.

Explaining how the system functions, NLAR researchers said that after parameters have been entered, the system projects the interaction between a drug and the animal based on given settings and the guinea pigs’ sectional images, physical information, and biological characteristics entered in the database.

Researchers said such a process would be able to replace some live animal experiments, saving the lives of laboratory animals and the cost of acquiring guinea pigs.

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