Research "Could End Animal Tests"

A Scottish biotechnology firm is aiming to develop a new procedure which could reduce the number of drug tests carried out on animals. CXR Biosciences, which is based in Dundee, has teamed up with Edinburgh's Roslin Institute and US firm Geron. If they can grow liver cells from stem cells it would remove the need to carry out liver damage tests on animals. CXR said that would be a "major breakthrough" which could be worth hundreds of millions of pounds. The company's Dr Tom Shepherd said: "The guys at Roslin and Geron know all about stem cells, but we know all about the liver, so together we hope to be able to make this deliver.