Microbial pathogenesis and vaccine development without animal testing?

[H Singh]

I seem to do pretty good at biology and so I decided to go into microbiology, since I didn't turn out to be very good at nursing.

 

I really will only be happy being a microbiologist if I were working in a field that directly alleviates human suffering, so I came to the conclusion that I should specialize in pathogenesis and vaccine development. I like microbiology in general as a hobby, but as a career I would need a specialty that let's me know I've done my part for humanity at the end of each day.

 

Ok, the problem is I really can not see how it would be possible to work in vaccine development and not have to participate in animal testing to some extant. I understand that animal testing is necessary, but it is not something I would be comfortable with... I guess I could get a colleage to perform the actual "killing", but I'd still have to be involved in the planning and directing to some point if I want to be a leader in vaccine development.

 

Is it possible to become a lead scientist in vaccine development without being involved in animal testing?

 

 

It seems like if I want to work in microbiology I will have to:

 

a. Choose a specialty besides vaccine development. The problem with that is I would only be happy specializing in an area of microbiology that directly contributes to the relieving of suffering.

 

b. Get my PhD in microbiology, but never be able to work my way to the top, and always hold myself back. For example, I might work in vaccine development , but I would constantly have to limit myself in my work especially when I get to an animal testing stage of my research I guess I would have to quit there and pass my work on to some other microbiologist

 

 

[CharonY]

Vaccine development is a long processes going through many phases. If you actually work on the bench you will rarely be involved in all of them. Especially the discovery/design phase will not involve animal tests. However, to me it looks more that you are interested in immunology or biomedical research rather than microbiology. The microbiology side will normally involve the analysis of e.g. pathogenicity mechanisms (as well as overall bacterial physiology). This may involve animal testing, but often cell models are used instead.

 

Biology deals with how the organisms do certain things (i.e. more base research). Medical application usually comes from biomedical research.

 

This knowledge may lead to the development of new treatments, but it does not has to. In short, you may be conflating various elements into a single career path, what you describe is, in effect covered by several different disciplines and career paths. You may want to look deeper into what each discipline is really dealing with, before making any decisions.