Take Action to Transform Medical Research
Actions You Can Take:
- Show Your Support for Transforming Medical Research
- Celebrate Victory: The FDA Modernization Act Has Passed
- Watch the Recording for the January 2022 Transforming Medical Research Event and Expand Your Knowledge

Show Your Support for Transforming Medical Research
What: Endorse PZI’s call to transform medical research
How: Sign on here!
Why: To show decision makers that there is a groundswell of support for medical and scientific research that protects and benefits people and animals
PZI is working to transform medical research to advance the ethics and science of medical research for the benefit of people and animals.
Each year, millions of animals—including dogs, cats, and monkeys—are used and killed in US laboratories. They’re forced to undergo painful experiments and to witness the pain and suffering of other animals.
In laboratories, animals must live with constant fear and pain, and they develop mental disorders, including severe depression and anxiety. They are deprived of the richness of life. Most animals don’t survive.
A growing number of doctors, scientists, and policy makers question the validity and reliability of animal experiments, including the risks such poor science poses to vulnerable human patients and populations.
Fortunately, there are more ethical, human-relevant research tools and methods that can be used to study diseases and potential lifesaving therapies.
Transforming medical research will lead to
- A more ethical and just research paradigm.
- Federal funding shifts.
- Improved standards in academic research and publication standards.
- More innovative and ethical education, training, and career pathways and pipelines.
- A coordinated and strategic roadmap toward more modernization and innovation that protects and benefits people and animals.

Celebrate Victory!: The FDA Modernization Act Has Passed
What:
We celebrate a historic victory with the passage of the FDA Modernization Act! This landmark bill is a significant step toward PZI’s ultimate goal of creating a just, modern research paradigm that benefits and protects both humans and animals.
Find out more about the FDA Modernization Act and why we need to transform medical research.
Read PZI CEO Dr. Hope Ferdowsian’s testimony to the Subcommittee on Health, Committee on Energy and Commerce in support of the FDA Modernization Act.

Watch the Recording for the January 2022 Transforming Medical Research Event
It’s time to transform medical research.
The medical and scientific communities have made important advancements in human research ethics, and it’s time to make similar progress for animals.
On Thursday, January 27, 2022, Phoenix Zones Initiative hosted a virtual panel discussion with eight expert panelists who discussed how human research protections offer a framework toward a transformative research agenda that benefits and protects humans and animals.
Panelists explored how human research protections, including the principles and applications described in The Belmont Report, could be extended to protect animals used in research in the US each year, while accelerating advances in more ethical, human-centered research technology.
“Extending the Belmont Report principles to animals would…help promote increased transparency, improved academic standards of publishing and greater investments in more reliable and translatable human-centered, modern research methods. It might also have the benefit of recruiting younger and more diverse learners who care deeply about justice to participate in scientific innovation.”
~ Hope Ferdowsian, MD, MPH, CEO, Phoenix Zones Initiative, and
Associate Professor of Medicine, University of New Mexico School of Medicine
Use and share our teaching guide, to use with the event video. The guide includes important questions to spark discussion and critical thinking with undergraduate and graduate students.
See our Press Kit, which includes more information about the event, as well as an FAQ about transforming medical research, a backgrounder about medical research, and more about our expert panelists.
Thank you to our generous funders!
We’re grateful for the generosity of these funders, whose support fuels our efforts to transform medical research:
Carroll Petrie Foundation
Horne Family Foundation
LUSH Charity Pot
Watch and share our video about why we need a Belmont Report for Animals: