Of Mice and Women: Scientists push to fix gender gap in lab rats for research
CBC Radio | Posted: April 20, 2016 2:04 PM | Last Updated: April 20, 2016
There's a gender gap in the field of biomedical research and the issue of gender representation is not with the scientists but with the gender of mice and rats studied in experiments. As many as 80 per cent of the mice used in biomedical research are male.
Scientists are concerned about the imbalance — warning that the disparity could be having some serious consequences when it comes to women's health.
Of the 10 major drugs pulled from the shelves over the last 20 years, eight have posed greater health risks for women.
The American National Institutes of Health is trying to fix this gap. New rules this year require researchers to include both male and female animals in their studies to get funding.
Similar rules exist in Canada, but some scientists say they don't go far enough.
Guests in this segment:
- Jeffrey Mogil, neuroscientist and pain specialist at McGill University.
- Cara Tannenbaum, scientific director of the Institute of Gender and Health at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
This segment was produced by The Current's Willow Smith.