If you look into a GCSE science classroom today, you will find students learning about some of the most cutting-edge topics in science. Yet, when it comes to how monoclonal antibodies are produced, the curriculum is stuck in the animal ‘model’ past. 

Over this spring and summer, I have been busy reaching out to all the major UK exam boards—AQA, Edexcel, OCR, and WJEC—to flag that their current GCSE specifications are out of date. We have also taken this straight to the top, engaging directly with Ofqual and the Department for Education (DfE), alongside submitting our evidence to the Government’s Curriculum and Assessment Review in 2025. 

Our message is simple: the national curriculum, and more importantly, the specific GCSE specifications, must reflect modern science – particularly where it has been flagged that animals should no longer used.   

The problem with the current specifications

Our bodies produce antibodies to provide immunity and fight infection. In GCSE science students learn about the specific structure of different antibodies and their capacity to bind to the correct shaped antigen.  In many Higher Tier Biology specifications students also learn about how scientists can produce clone individual antibodies in the lab (known as mono-clonal, as they are all the same type of antibody) and some of the uses of monoclonal antibodies such as diagnostic tools in pregnancy tests or assays in labs to detect infectious disease. Right now however, Biology specifications focus heavily on traditional hybridoma technology. Students are taught that to make monoclonal antibodies, we must stimulate mouse lymphocytes and combine them with tumour cells. 

Teaching this as the primary or sole method is a major problem for several reasons: 

• It ignores scientific progress. Modern, non-animal methods like phage display have been available and recommended at regulatory levels for years. 

• It continues to support the outdated view that animal use is the gold standard. 

• It misses a valuable opportunity to showcase a modern non-animal scientific technique to students. 

• It ignores a successful example of the replacement of a previous animal method, and opportunities for conversations around the ethical, legal and societal reasons for doing this.  

Why non-animal science in biology matters

This isn’t just about updating a few lines in a textbook; it’s about inspiring the next generation of researchers. 

Students opting for Higher Tier Biology are often the very individuals who hold a genuine passion for science. Many of them will go on to become the scientific researchers of tomorrow and the professionals who will actually design, use, and rely on antibodies in their careers. If we teach them that animal experimentation is the way forward, in a scenario where it absolutely is not, then we are failing the students and the animals. . By introducing them to modern, human-relevant, non-animal alternatives, we prepare them for a progressive, ethical career in modern bioscience. There are valuable learning points to keeping the historical hybridoma methods of producing antibodies in, alongside examples of modern, non-animal methods of monoclonal antibody production, to compare the two ethically and scientifically.  But there is no justification to only teach students about an animal method, where alternatives exist. 

A Crucial Window for Change

With the Government currently reviewing what our children learn, this is the perfect opportunity to ensure school science remains relevant to the modern world. While the overarching curriculum sets the framework, the granular detail of how techniques are taught falls to individual exam boards. That is why we are proactively engaging with them now, ahead of new specification developments. 

At Replacing Animal Research, we aren’t just pointing out the flaws, we are offering our full support, resources, and expertise to help these boards modernise their curriculums. 

We want a curriculum that aligns with the UK’s strategy to replace animal use in science and our mission to work towards a world where no animal suffers for science. Let’s give our students the knowledge, skills and inspiration to help advance scientific methods of the future.  

Read our full open letter to the exam boards.