Skip to main content

Oxford opens animal lab

Five years after construction first started, then stopped, then started again, Oxford University's controversial animal research lab officially opened its doors today (Nov. 11). Construction of the £18 million ($28 million) linkurl:Biomedical Sciences Building;https://www.ox.ac.uk/animal_research/the_biomedical_sciences_building/index.html began in 2003, but was linkurl:suspended;https://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/22297/ in 2004 for 16 months after the contractors pulled out in th

Written byElie Dolgin
| 1 min read

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
1:00
Five years after construction first started, then stopped, then started again, Oxford University's controversial animal research lab officially opened its doors today (Nov. 11). Construction of the £18 million ($28 million) linkurl:Biomedical Sciences Building;https://www.ox.ac.uk/animal_research/the_biomedical_sciences_building/index.html began in 2003, but was linkurl:suspended;https://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/22297/ in 2004 for 16 months after the contractors pulled out in the face of intimidation from animal rights activists. The university then obtained an linkurl:injunction against the protestors,;https://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/22318/ established an exclusion zone around the facility, and the government provided additional security to allow the lab's linkurl:construction to go ahead.;https://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/22849/ The four-story building is still ringed by a wooden fence topped with barbed wire, and remains under constant surveillance by CCTV cameras. Only mice have been moved into the facility so far. But over the coming months, the lab's staff plans to transfer other animals -- including ferrets, tadpoles, zebrafish, and monkeys -- into the center, which will bring more than 100 animal research projects currently run across the university campus under one roof. The lab is expected to be fully up and running by the middle of 2009, according to the__ linkurl:Guardian.;https://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/nov/11/animal-research-oxford-university __An entire floor of the new facility is dedicated to the lab's most contentious subjects -- macaques -- which will make up less than 0.5% of the animals in the new facility. For an inside look at the animal research lab's primate facilities from the __BBC__, linkurl:click here.;https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7721955.stm
Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!
Already a member?
Add The Scientist as a preferred source on Google

Add The Scientist as a preferred Google source to see more of our trusted coverage.

Meet the Author

Related articles background image
August 2026 Digest cover
August 2026

Epic Fail: Sea-Monkeys Sabotage Fieldwork

When Barry Hicks set out to photograph thrombolites, thousands of unexpected visitors photobombed his underwater images.

View this Issue
Overcoming Immunotherapy Resistance in Liver Cancer

Overcoming Immunotherapy Resistance in Liver Cancer

Axion Biosystems
Optimizing NGS Library Preparation for Reliable Sequencing Data

Optimizing NGS Library Preparation for Reliable Sequencing Data

Covaris
Using TCR Repertoire Sequencing to Advance Immunology Research

Using TCR Repertoire Sequencing to Advance Immunology Research

Miltenyi
Mapping Clonal Mosaicism in Aging Tissues

Mapping Clonal Mosaicism in Aging Tissues

Mission bio

Products

Sino Biological Logo

Sino Biological Launches SuperNuclease ® Pro with Free Trial Program

Sino Biological Logo

Sino Biological Launches Precisely Characterized Full-Length p-Tau217 Protein to Advance Next-Generation Alzheimer’s Biomarker Assay Development

A photo of a scientist placing the Resipher device on a 96-well plate.

Resipher: Continuous Live-Cell Mitochondrial Respiration Monitoring in 96-Well Plates

Lucid Scientific logo
Conceptual image of ice and frost.

The VAULT100 PRO: Inside the most advanced Stirling Ultracold ULT freezer ever built.

Stirling Ultracold logo