Jarrod Bailey, PhD, FOCAE

Jarrod Bailey is director of medical research for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. He helps to develop the organization’s strategic plans, and to deliver their goals by leading a team of scientists in multi-faceted efforts to refocus biomedical research towards human biology and human-based methods, for the benefit of humans and animals alike.

Dr. Bailey and his team are involved in influencing all who fund, publish and approve biomedical research programs and those who make laws and policies on how research and testing is conducted and supported. This involves building the evidence base to support a shift away from animal research and towards human-focused methods throughout, via the production of scientific papers and book chapters; communicating this evidence as widely as possible to all stakeholders, including the public; supporting the lobbying efforts of colleagues in Congress to elicit changes in policy on research conduct and funding, and influencing funding bodies such as the NIH via their institute directors and advisory committees.

Dr. Bailey and his team also encourage more critical attitudes to animal research, more constructive and forward-thinking approaches to replacing animal use in science with more translational human-specific methods, challenge animal bias in the scientific community, highlight problems and issues with research oversight and suggest solutions, and hold scientific journals, publishers, researchers, institutions, and funders accountable any and all involvement in animal experiments when their objectives could have been achieved by using humans and human-specific approaches.

Dr. Bailey graduated from Newcastle University, England, with honours in genetics, and with a PhD in genetics and virology. He then spent several years researching human premature birth, using human tissues and tissue culture. He left the laboratory to work with the Physicians Committee for the first time, between 2002 and 2009, which included authoring a petition to the FDA to mandate scientifically valid nonanimal research methods, and publishing papers showing that developmental toxicology in animals was not predictive for humans. He has spent the last 20 years evaluating the scientific validity and human relevance of animal experiments in many areas of biomedical research and drug/product testing, and promoting the use of human-specific research methods in their place. He has published more than 70 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, on topics as diverse as HIV/AIDS, neuroscience, drug testing, genetic modification of animals, and the use (and replacement) of dogs and nonhuman primates in research.

Dr. Bailey has also authored scientific petitions and submissions of evidence to many U.S. and European inquiries into animal research/the use of alternatives, and presented his work to the FDA, and to members of U.S. Congress and the U.K., European and Italian parliaments. He presented his research to the U.S. Institute of Medicine as part of its 2011 inquiry into chimpanzee research, which led to a de facto end to invasive chimpanzee experimentation in the U.S. He has presented his work at numerous international conferences, and participated by invitation in numerous debates and interviews on the scientific case for a shift toward human-focused methods in biomedical research, including for television and radio programs, documentaries, and for newspaper and magazine articles. He is a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics.

Dr. Bailey’s work can be found here: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jarrod-Bailey/research

Significant examples include:

• Taylor K, Modi S & Bailey J. An analysis of trends in the use of animal and non-animal methods in biomedical research and toxicology publications. Front Lab Chip Technol, 2024, Vol. 3.
• Cassotta M, et al. The future of Parkinson’s Disease Research: a new paradigm of human-specific investigation is necessary…and possible. ALTEX, 2022; 39(4): 694-709.
• Bailey J, Balls M. Repeating Nonhuman Primate Tests of COVID-19 Vaccines is a Folly: Human Vaccine Development Must Focus on Human Biology. Science, 2020 (Oct 16); eLetter. [In response to: DOI: 10.1126/science.370.6513.154]
• Marshall J, Bailey J, et al. Poor translatability of biomedical research using animals – a narrative review. ATLA, 2023; 51(2), 102-135.
• Bailey J, Balls M. Clinical Impact of High-Profile Animal-Based Research Reported in the UK National Press. BMJ Open Science, 2020; 4:e100039. doi: 10.1136/bmjos-2019-100039.
• Bailey J. CRISPR-Mediated Gene Editing: Scientific and Ethical Issues. Trends in Biotechnology, 2019; 37(9), 920-921.
• Bailey J, Balls M. Recent Efforts to Elucidate the Scientific Validity of Animal-Based Drug Tests by the Pharmaceutical Industry, Pro-Testing Lobby Groups, and Animal Welfare Organisations. BMC Medical Ethics, 2019; 20:16.
• Bailey J. Editorial: Does the Stress of Laboratory Life and Experimentation on Animals Adversely Affect Research Data? A Critical Review. Alternatives to Laboratory Animals, 2018; 46(5), 291-305.
• Bailey J, Pereira S. Advances in Neuroscience Imply that Harmful Experiments in Dogs are Unethical. Journal of Medical Ethics, 2018; 44(1), 47-52. [Published Online First: 24 July 2017. doi: 10.1136/medethics-2016-103630]
• Bailey J, Taylor K. Nonhuman Primates in Neuroscience Research: Scientifically Unnecessary. Alternatives to Laboratory Animals, 2016; 44, 43-69.