In vivo 

(adjective. /in VEE-voh/) 

by Madison Williams

What does it mean? 

“In vivo” is a term used to describe a process or experiment that takes place inside a multicellular living organism. Scientists perform in vivo experiments to understand how biological processes work inside a complex living system. 

How do I use it in a sentence?

“He examined the effect of the drug in vivo by injecting it into the mouse.”

Some Latin (or pseudo-Latin) terms for experimental methods. The term “in vivo” means “in a living thing”, and in vivo experiments can be conducted in many different types of living organisms, such as mice and insects, as the figure shows. Image made by author using art from Servier.

Etymology

“In vivo” is Latin for “in a living thing” and is taken from the Latin word “vita”, which means “life”. “In vivo” was first used in 1901 and is a widely used term across many scientific fields, since experiments in living systems are very common.

Related terms

In vitro
Ex vivo
In silico

Fields of study in which this word is commonly used

Biology
Physiology
Pharmacology

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