Catharine E. Krebs, PhD

Catharine E. Krebs, PhD, is a medical research program manager with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nationwide organization of physicians and laypersons that promotes preventive medicine, conducts clinical research, and encourages higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in research and medical training.

At the Physicians Committee, Dr. Krebs works to advance the use of nonanimal medical research approaches the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world’s largest funder of biomedical research. She also advocates for policy changes to promote a more diverse and inclusive research workforce. She monitors the agency’s funding priorities, research strategies, and policies for opportunities to meaningfully engage NIH leadership and staff, researchers, lawmakers, Physicians Committee members, and the public. Dr. Krebs has authored numerous Congressional statements and public comments to the NIH and other federal agencies.

In addition to NIH engagement, Dr. Krebs leads a collaborative international effort to characterize and address the bias toward animal-based methods within medical research: the Coalition to Illuminate and Address Animal Methods Bias (COLAAB). She led the COLAAB to win the Lush Prize in May 2024. She also leads efforts to improve research protections for cephalopods, the class of animals including octopuses and squids, which aren’t covered by the U.S. animal welfare laws and regulations that affect federally funded laboratories; as well as efforts to combat animal-to-human organ transplantation—xenotransplantation—by raising awareness about its many harms and risks and by promoting safer, more ethical, and more effective means of addressing the demand for organs.

Dr. Krebs is a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics and a member of the American Public Health Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Read more about Dr. Krebs’s latest work:

The time is now: Celebrating momentum toward human-centered research at the NIH

We Don’t Need More Monkeys, We Need a New Strategy to Test Vaccines

Krebs CE and Herrmann K. Confronting the bias towards animal experimentation (animal methods bias). Frontiers in Drug Discovery. April 4, 2024. https://doi.org/10.3389/fddsv.2024.1347798

Krebs CE. Better Alternatives to Animal-to-Human Transplants. The New York Times. May 19, 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/19/opinion/obesity-weight-loss-drugs-ozempic.html

Krebs CE. Animal testing isn't our only option — NIH needs to invest in alternatives. The Hill. September 4, 2020. https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/515095-animal-testing-isnt-our-only-option-nih-needs-to-invest-in-alternatives