• Question: Do you ever make different drugs for animals such as dogs,,cats or horses?a

    Asked by hazel.com to Sudhin, Sergio, Katie, Frances, Diarmuid, Aoife on 14 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Aoife Campbell

      Aoife Campbell answered on 14 Nov 2019:

      For now I’m only aiming to develop drugs for humans as I dont think angelman syndrome occurs in animals. But epilepsy is very common in dogs so I’m sure theres some groups working on treatments for dogs

    • Photo: Diarmuid Kenny

      Diarmuid Kenny answered on 14 Nov 2019:

      I havent worked on any drugs for animals, but I know people who work on drugs for horses in particular. I keep fish and there are a range of drugs I use when my fish get sick.

    • Photo: Katie Fala

      Katie Fala answered on 22 Nov 2019:

      I am studying molecules from first principles, that is to say that at the moment I am solely testing them against the bacteria that we are interested in controlling e.g. pathogens in the food chain. At a later stage if it is shown to be effective it could well be tested in different applications e.g. human and veterinary medicine as well as potentially using it as an agent to help control bacteria outside of animal bodies e.g. against biofilms of bacteria in pipes in food processing plants that could result in the contamination of the food with bugs that could make us very sick. I expect that sometimes a drug could be used in a range of different animals, just at differing doses. For others, drugs might only work in a particular species because different creatures have different anatomies and metabolic pathways.

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