Stewart Lebrun is an experienced California biochemist and toxicologist who operated his own Anaheim-based research facility for nearly a decade. In both a professional and personal capacity, one of Stewart Lebrun’s passions is learning about various alternatives to animal testing.
For medical testing that is too dangerous to conduct on human subjects, scientists have used various animal species for centuries. In a modern world that finds many of these tests cruel and unacceptable, in vitro testing offers a viable alternative.
Latin for “within the glass,” in vitro testing involves conducting experiments on cells or tissues in culture. Although these cells and tissues are technically living matter, they are not sentient organisms.
In vitro testing is also often more effective than animal testing because it uses human biological material rather than the biological material of another species. The process has proven useful in the testing of drugs and chemicals, as well as cosmetics and other consumer products.
