The first steps of a project funded by the PETA International Science Consortium Ltd. have succeeded in creating fully human-derived antibodies capable of blocking the poisonous toxin that causes diphtheria. These antibodies can end the 100-year-old method of injecting horses repeatedly with the diphtheria toxin and then draining huge amounts of their blood in order to collect the antibodies that their immune systems produce to fight the disease. The results of the project were published in Scientific Reports (a Nature Publishing Group research journal) and covered in an article in Science.
PETA International Science Consortium Funds Scientific Breakthrough That Will Help End the Use of Horses to Treat Diphtheria
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— Ingrid E. Newkirk, PETA President and co-author of Animalkind