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Prioritizing Human-Based Research Methods in Women’s Health Research
Research shows that sex differences play a substantial role in health and disease progression. To improve basic and translational science and address the existing gap for women’s health research, Physicians Committee experts submitted a comment urging the Advisory Committee on Research on Women’s Health to prioritize human-based research methods.
This year, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a new, groundbreaking, initiative to expand innovative, human-based science while reducing animal use in research. Of human-based approaches, NIH director Jay Bhattacharya stated they “will accelerate innovation, improve healthcare outcomes, and deliver life-changing treatments,” including for diseases like Alzheimer’s, which women are twice as likely to develop than men.
The NIH’s Strategic Plan for Research on the Health of Women 2025-2028 identified a need for innovative approaches for research, including human-based approaches like organoids, engineered tissue technologies, and nonanimal in silico models. Building on that identified need and the new NIH-wide initiative, Physicians Committee experts encouraged the Advisory Council to increase its support for animal-free, new approach methodologies (NAMs). NAMs can be derived directly from patients to reflect important patient-specific genetic background and disease pathology, promoting health equity and precision medicine in ways that are impossible using animals.
For diseases that disproportionately impact women, like Alzheimer’s, and areas of research in which women are underrepresented, like HIV/AIDS, the use of animals—particularly nonhuman primates—has hindered the development of therapies and vaccines. Conversely, studies utilizing human-based methods can overcome existing translational barriers caused by the continued use of animals and lead to revolutionary medical breakthroughs and clinical benefit.
As the new NIH-wide initiative further develops, the Physicians Committee will continue communicating with key advisory councils and NIH institutes to help guide the shift away from the use of animals in medical research and testing.
