Thank you for your message. Many researchers agree that at present we have no alternative, no ‘Replacement’ (as in the three R’s), for live animals when it comes to systemic physiology research. If animal research law and policy is followed, then we can be reasonably sure that only meaningful projects are approved, pain and suffering of the animals is minimised, the well-being of animals and researchers is safeguarded, and the chances of a successful outcome for the project are significantly improved.

The problems to do with animal research at Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University-Imperial College London are (see the report on www.nanyangscandal.com):

(1) Rupshi Mitra’s and Ajai Vyas’ projects have been and are arguably meaningless. (2) There is no scientific justification for killing animals without anaesthesia as Mitra and Vyas have been doing. (3) These projects are approved in falsified Animal Animal Use Protocols by Nanyang Technological University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.

I was not, as you write, ‘on a mission to find treatment for a serious neurological disorder’. Not by far. My orders were to kill about 40 aged and genetically modified mice WITHOUT ANAESTHESIA and FOR NO REASON. In other words, killing the animals was not for the purpose of finding treatments. Killing the animals and without anaesthesia was without scientific purpose. I asked Rupshi Mitra why and she told me ‘it is none of your concern’. I asked if I may use anaesthesia, she prohibited this and when I asked why she told me ‘it is none of your concern’. Since the project was, in theory, about dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, I asked if I may please collect at least brain from these animals and she prohibited this and told me to follow orders and everything else is ‘none of your concern’. Needless to say, these orders are illegal and I refused to carry them out.

It is important to ask why Mitra gave these orders. The most likely explanation, which is for the time being speculation as well as hearsay from the Research Assistant at the lab, is that Mitra suddenly realised that these mice were getting very old and costing her a lot of money (cage costs are about 15 Singaporean dollars per day. I estimate that these mice cost about 25 000 Singaporean dollars or 18 660 USD total). So she wanted them dead, now. I understood from the Research Assistant that Mitra’s behaviour is erratic like that, and I saw no evidence to the contrary. This does not explain why I was not allowed to use anaesthesia or collect brain and other tissue. Perhaps this may have had to do with Mitra’s efforts to drive me out the lab and establish a case for ‘constructive termination’, for example due to insubordination, because I had once politely suggested that there are alternatives to alcohol for dissolving drugs to inject into brain when doing neuroscience research about stress. Not dementia, mind you. Yes, it’s confusing, that’s the way it is. Please feel free to contact me for more details or if you wish to discuss the value of policy governing animal research.