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Testing drugs in humans before they are proven safe is ethically prohibited. Immunologists face these barriers to bring vaccines and other treatments from labs to humans, thus using disease models to prove the safety and efficiency of vaccines is considered. Animal models used to develop vaccines must be useful to observe the primary immune responses underlying natural and acquired immunity. Mice are well-studied species as they have been used in research for more than a century. Mice share mammalian characteristics with humans and are vulnerable to many of the same diseases that infect humans. Through genetic manipulation, mice can be used to mimic any particular human infection or illness. Mice are easy to look after and economical to purchase. This makes mice an appropriate subject for conducting clinical trials to see if certain drugs can cure human diseases. With advanced sequencing and genetic engineering techniques, the specific defects underlying human diseases can be given to mice, providing more precise data. Another important aspect of the mouse is its accelerated lifespan, thus the complete life cycle can be observed and studied within only two or three years. These characteristics of mice enable researchers with a significant tool to study the pathologies of human infections and experiment with new drug combinations.
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