The Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)

Animal studies have played essential roles in the development of therapies to combat AIDS, several forms of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, paralysis and other medical conditions. While numerous advances have led to new or improved clinical treatments and prevention strategies, there are many diseases where few, if any therapeutic options exist. These include leukemia, breast and pancreatic cancers, Alzheimer’s disease, traumatic brain injury, and stroke.

As health researchers, we believe it is our moral imperative to use the proven and effective research process – which involves animals – to continue to make innovative discoveries that positively impact human lives.

We believe in the “Three R” principles of animal welfare – reduction, refinement, and replacement.

We understand the tremendous responsibility that comes with animal-based research. We conduct studies with animals only when necessary and provide them with outstanding care. Substantial effort is made to ensure that all procedures are continually refined to minimize pain and distress to the animals. In addition, the number of experimental animals is reduced to the minimum necessary. The personnel who provide our animal care consider it a privilege to work with animals, and demonstrate this commitment daily by treating them with the utmost care and respect.

The University’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee reviews and approves all research protocols and procedures that the animals experience. As additional safeguards to the animals, our research program is inspected annually by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and triennially by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International (AAALAC), the highest standard of accreditation for US animal research programs. Oversight of our animal research includes not just routine reviews and reports, but also unannounced visits to research and training units, aiming to ensure that animals are treated humanely and with the utmost care. If there is ever a lapse in any process, it is self-reported, and appropriate and timely corrective actions are taken. Actions taken for any non-compliance can be severe, and range from official warnings to fines being imposed on the institution, with the possibility of suspension of work or the revocation of research licenses

We comply with federal laws and regulations including the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) regulations overseen by the USDA. We also closely follow the Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (PHS Policy) administered by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW). Our country’s comprehensive animal care oversight systems require regular communications between research institutions and federal regulators to ensure that animals are treated well and adjustments take place as needed. This system works rapidly and effectively to ensure that animals are well cared for.

Animal-based research at the University of Miami continues to contribute to advances in the treatment of serious human medical conditions—examples include:

• Researchers at UM’s Miami Project to Cure Paralysis performed animal studies that led to the demonstration that “therapeutic hypothermia”, a slight lowering of the temperature in areas of the central nervous system, can lessen the severity of deficits suffered by people with neurodegenerative conditions like traumatic brain injury or spinal cord injury

• Animal studies performed by researchers at UM’s Bascom Palmer Eye Institute have led to a novel gene therapy that is highly promising in initial human studies to treat Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy—a previously untreatable disease that causes progressive and devastating loss of vision

• Researchers at UM’s Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and Department of Microbiology and Immunology performed animal studies that led to the development of a unique monoclonal antibody that is now part of a novel drug used successfully to treat cancer