Nick Pyenson

So I was responsible for helping the team insert the virus into these chimps, some of which had the vaccine and some of which did not.

So this was kind of a scary endeavor.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The reason why you do science is to test hypotheses.

And there was every reason to believe that the chimps were going to be a breakthrough for HIV, as it had been for hepatitis A, hepatitis C. So, in fact, the HIV virus did circulate in both humans and chimps.

But the problem was that the AIDS disease itself didn't actually occur in the chimps.

This is a commandment, if you will, an unofficial commandment.

It was actually developed by two scientists in Great Britain in 1959.

Birch and Russell were interested in the ethics of animal research.

So they came up with these principles of reduction, refinement and replacement.

Can this research with animals have a reduction in the number of animals?

Can it be refined to reduce or eliminate pain and distress?

And finally, can it be replaced by non-animal methods?

No question about it.

The animal activists of years past and in today have been instrumental in improving the life of research animals.

The conditions that animals are in today are better.

I mean, a number of amendments have been made to the Animal Welfare Act, and those in part were made because of influences of animal activists on the United States Senate.

And if you want to be a scientist and you're in the United States, well, there are no free-ranging primates in the U.S.

And so that meant I went to a primate lab.