01386nas a2200241   4500000000100000000000100001008004100002260000900043653002700052653001200079653001600091653001100107653001900118100001700137700001400154700001500168245004500183856006900228300000600297490000600303520082100309022001401130       2009                            d  c200910aanimal experimentation10aAnimals10aForecasting10aHumans10aModels, Animal1 aNiall Shanks1 aRay Greek1 aJean Greek00aAre animal models predictive for humans?  uhttps://peh-med.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1747-5341-4-2  a20 v43 aIt is one of the central aims of the philosophy of science to elucidate the meanings of scientific terms and also to think critically about their application. The focus of this essay is the scientific term predict and whether there is credible evidence that animal models, especially in toxicology and pathophysiology, can be used to predict human outcomes. Whether animals can be used to predict human response to drugs and other chemicals is apparently a contentious issue. However, when one empirically analyzes animal models using scientific tools they fall far short of being able to predict human responses. This is not surprising considering what we have learned from fields such evolutionary and developmental biology, gene regulation and expression, epigenetics, complexity theory, and comparative genomics.  a1747-5341