- Emerging Trends: Utilizing Humanized Rat Models for Investigating Strategies Against HIV and Associated Pathologies - HIV-associated morbidity and mortality have both been significantly reduced over the past few decades due to the development of safe and effective combination antiretroviral medications. These drugs have provided a great way for protection against HIV transmission so far. Despite these advancements, there are also some significant limitations, including the inability to eliminate HIV reservoirs and to reverse lymphoid tissue… Continue Reading >
- Cotransfect Multiple piggyBac Transposons to Easily Express Complex Proteins - Multiplexed Gene Delivery with piggyBac One of the most widely used approaches in biotechnology and drug development is the generation of cultured human cells that can stably express one or more recombinant gene sequences for further studies. As we have seen in the past, conventional methods are never that efficient and have major limitations as far as engineering cells to… Continue Reading >
- Optimizing Cell Based Research Models with Cas-CLOVER - The creation of cell-based disease and research models can inform drug development programs through mechanism elucidation, isogenic disease models, loss or gain-of-function studies and more. Because of the imprecision and variable transgene expression associated with random integration, many times development of models with these technologies is delayed or comes to a complete halt. On the other hand, popular single-guided RNA… Continue Reading >
- Hera Biolabs acquires Spectral Instruments Ami HT imaging technology for enhanced in vivo capabilities - Hera Biolabs’ piggyBac transposase is proven to rapidly create stable in vivo reporter cell lines for imaging tumor growth and metastasis. Hera has the piggyBac cell line engineering capabilities, unique oncology rodent models and now has the Spectral Instruments Ami HT optical imaging system as well for advanced in vivo imaging. Let’s review a recent study that used the piggyBac… Continue Reading >
- Cas-CLOVER demonstrates key advantages in fully validated animal model gene editing applications - In this article we discuss our proof-of-concept (POC) data in mouse embryos and the apparent advantages that Cas-CLOVER may have over the popular CRISPR/Cas9 for animal model gene editing. The CRISPR/Cas9 platform has been a staple in the animal models community, however Cas-CLOVER has recently been shown to have multiple advantages including larger deletions, a lack of off-target effects, and… Continue Reading >
- Hera Biolabs receives AAALAC Accreditation For Exceptional Animal Care - One of the most important parts of the entire drug development process is the use of animals in the testing during the preclinical phase. Humane Treatment of Animals Translates Into Better Science AAALAC International is a private, nonprofit organization that sets the bar for humane treatment of animals in science through rigorous accreditation and assessment programs. Earning AAALAC accreditation requires… Continue Reading >
- Fine Needle Aspirate Serial Tumor Sampling Services to Boost Your Xenograft Study Capabilities - Xenograft tumors from human cancer cell lines in immunocompromised mice are a staple of pre-clinical oncology research. However, tumor size limits, small blood volume, and minimal toxicology capabilities are significant challenges when using mice as an animal model. Hera BioLabs is proud to offer improved preclinical study opportunities using the SRG rat (OncoRat®), with tumor volumes growing up to 10,000+ mm³ or ten times the size of a mouse xenograft… Continue Reading >
- Validation of the SRG Rat for Human Tumor Studies Published in PLOS ONE - We are excited to announce that a validation study using the SRG rat engrafted with human tumors (OncoRat®) has been published in PLOS ONE. Specifically, the paper validated the use of the OncoRat® in human tumor oncology studies. The paper, titled “The SRG rat, a Sprague-Dawley Rag2/Il2rg double-knockout validated for human tumor oncology studies,” is a collaboration among researchers working… Continue Reading >
- Gene Editing With piggyBac: Creating A Curative Treatment For Beta-Thalassemia - Genetic engineering can soon lead to lifelong cures for diseases that were previously incurable - and ß-thalassemia is the perfect example. Through novel therapeutic methods like cell therapy, scientists have found a way to cure a disease that used to only be manageable. Previous gene editing methods used to treat ß-thalassemia were limited and nonspecific; however, advances like piggyBac and… Continue Reading >
- Humanized Skin and Immune Cell Rodent Models Revolutionizing Scientific Research - A current challenge in medical research is developing and choosing biologically appropriate models. In skin disorder research, the differences between human and animal skin, including absorption capacity, thickness, protein configuration, and DNA repair mechanisms is a significant limitation. Human Skin and Immune System (hSIS)-humanized NOD-scid IL2Rgnull (NSG) mouse and Sprague-Dawley-Rag2tm2hera Il2rgtm1hera (SRG) OncoRat® models are ideal animal hosts for studies… Continue Reading >