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Creating a human-relevant bleeding simulator to replace the use of pigs

Eleanor Makin

Eleanor Makin

De Montfort University

Awarded: £4,300

Eleanor Makin is a final year Biomedical Sciences BSc Student at De Montfort University, and she will be awarded £4,300.00 to develop her project “PEPPA – Precision Exsanguination Platform for Preclinical Assessment”, supervised by Dr Omar Qutachi, and Dr Chris Young.

The Problem

26/05/2026 | Written by: Lucinda

Severe bleeding from major arteries is a leading cause of preventable death after trauma. To develop new dressings and devices to stop bleeding, researchers currently rely heavily on experiments using live pigs. In these studies, a major artery is deliberately cut, causing rapid and life‑threatening blood loss. Many animals go into severe shock and die as part of the experiment.

These studies raise serious ethical concerns because they involve significant suffering and use large numbers of animals worldwide. They are also inefficient—animals may die before useful data is collected, and results often show little improvement over existing products.

In addition, there are scientific limitations. Differences between pigs and humans, along with variability in how bleeding occurs, means that results do not always translate well to real patients. Despite this, these severe animal experiments are still commonly used as an early testing step.

The Project

26/05/2026 | Written by: Lucinda

Eleanor’s project focuses on developing a low‑cost, laboratory-based precision physiological simulator that accurately mimics severe bleeding from arteries and organs such as the liver.

She will use a small pump to push fluid around a closed loop of tubing that represents the artery and surrounding circulation. Adjusting the pump speed and adding a small air‑filled chamber and resistance valve, will allow her to generate a pressure waveform that closely mimics a real femoral arterial blood pressure.

An artificial “wound” in the system will allow fluid to flow out under realistic conditions, closely imitating real bleeding. The simulator will also include programmable controls to adjust heart rate and pressure, making it possible to replicate different trauma scenarios with realistic blood pressure and pulsing flow, like human circulation

This platform can then be used to test and compare bleeding control products (such as dressings) in a controlled, repeatable way. Eleanor’s design will include input from medical and industry partners so it can be used both in research and in training environments.

The Potential

26/05/2026 | Written by: Lucinda

This project has the potential to significantly reduce, and in some cases replace, severe animal experiments in trauma injury research. By providing a realistic and reliable testing platform, it allows early-stage product development to happen without using animals.

The simulator will also save time and costs, improve consistency of results, and give companies and end users greater confidence in bleed control products. Because it is affordable and built from widely available components, it could be widely adopted across research labs, industry, and training settings.

Eleanor’s research on bleeding control stems from her undergraduate internal placement year with Chromar, a De Montfort University spin out, led by Drs Qutachi and Young, who are developing novel wet-adhesive wound sealant technologies for trauma care.

In the long term, Eleanor’s work on this project could shift trauma research towards more ethical, human-relevant testing methods—replacing severe animal experiments while improving the quality and usefulness of scientific data.

Creating a human-relevant bleeding simulator to replace the use of pigs

“I’m passionate about Replacing Animal Research’s mission because it encourages innovation in how we approach biomedical science. Developing alternatives to animal research not only has important ethical benefits, but also creates opportunities for more human-relevant and effective research methods.”

Eleanor Makin

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