In biotech’s biggest hub, companies open their labs to an unlikely inspector: the city’s veterinarian
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Some cities have public advocates. Others have consumer advocates. And education advocates.
But Cambridge is the only city in America that has an advocate for mice, rats and other creatures. She is Dr. Julie Medley, and her official title is Commissioner of Laboratory Animals. In an unlikely position for someone who thought her career would be devoted to treating cats and dogs in a veterinary practice, she wields considerable authority over some of the nation’s biggest pharmaceutical and biotech companies.
Day after day, Medley shows up — unannounced — at labs across this city and gently demands a tour of companies’ animal research facilities. The companies have no choice but to open their doors.
After she puts on protective clothing, including a disposable, tissue-paper-like gown and shoe coverings, employees guide Medley to where tens, thousands, or in some labs, hundreds of thousands of mice and rats live, eat, and sleep. They show her animals’ medical records. Sometimes, by chance, Medley will be there to watch researchers conducting procedures or surgeries.
“I will watch over their shoulder and make them very nervous — that’s not my intention,’’ Medley said in an interview with STAT. “But that’s one of the things I like to see. It’s one thing to read it on paper and it’s another
