- Home >
- Research and Innovation >
- Research at Institut Curie >
- Organization >
- Animal research
Animal research guided by strict ethical principles
Issues of animal protection and welfare are increasingly at the center of societal and political concerns. Regarding the use of animals for scientific purposes, Institut Curie promotes ethical and responsible research. While the use of animals remains essential for understanding and reproducing the complex interactions within a living organism, Institut Curie is actively developing alternative approaches through interdisciplinary collaborations: in silico models, microfluidics, organ-on-chip systems, organoids, and synthetic antibodies. This ethical commitment reflects a broader commitment to scientific responsibility, balancing the need to advance knowledge with the imperative to respect all living things.
This ethical commitment reflects a broader commitment to scientific responsibility, balancing the need to advance knowledge with the imperative to respect all living things.
Institut Curie conducts basic, translational, and clinical research that puts science to work for human health, the fight against disease, and, in particular, cancer. To carry out this research—in physics, chemistry, biology, and radiobiology—Institut Curie must rely on animals. Aware of its responsibilities, Institut Curie is committed to promoting the development of experimental methods that avoid the use of animals whenever possible and to protecting the welfare of the animals used, in particular by strictly complying with applicable French and European legislation.
Accredited ethics committees for animal experimentation evaluate research projects involving animals. A favorable opinion must be issued by the committee before the French Ministry of Research grants authorization and the research can begin. Thus, research projects involving vertebrate animals conducted by Institut Curie research teams are evaluated by Institut Curie animal experimentation ethics committee before any work begins.
Institut Curie strictly adheres to French and European regulations governing the protection of animals used for scientific purposes. In particular, it applies and implements the “3Rs” principle (replacement, reduction, and refinement), which calls for:
- Systematically replacing the use of animal models with alternative methods whenever possible (in vitro, bioinformatics simulations, etc.).
- Reducing the number of animals to the minimum necessary to obtain reliable results.
- Refining practices to ensure animal welfare and minimize pain.
Institut Curie is committed to the ongoing training of all staff involved in animal research. In addition, the facilities housing the animals are approved by the departmental veterinary services.
As part of this commitment, Institut Curie is a signatory to the Transparency Charter on the use of animals in research, alongside more than 40 other public and private French biomedical research institutions.
Learn more about the Transparency Charter