Medical Clues from Animals

Some of the most promising new ideas in modern medicine come from a genuinely unexpected source: the bodies of other animals. Through many millions of years of evolution, a great many creatures have developed truly remarkable abilities that allow them to survive conditions which would quickly harm or even kill a human being. By studying carefully how they manage to do this, scientists hope to discover entirely new ways to （ 1 ） human health and to treat diseases that still defeat us.

The examples are genuinely striking. Bears spend many months fast asleep during the winter without eating or moving at all, and yet they do not lose bone strength in the way that bedridden humans quickly do. Certain small animals almost never develop cancer, even in extreme old age. Some creatures can even regrow whole body parts that humans cannot. （ 2 ） these extraordinary abilities, researchers around the world search patiently for the particular genes and chemicals responsible, hoping eventually to apply the lessons to human patients.

Such research must always be carried out with great care. What works perfectly well in one animal does not always work in another, and treatments that succeed brilliantly in the laboratory very often fail when they are finally tried in humans. （ 3 ） these real difficulties, the natural world remains a vast and largely unread library of solutions that took evolution many millions of years to develop. For many scientists, learning to read that library carefully is one of the most exciting frontiers in all of medicine.