• Humanized Mouse Model Allows For Study Of Immune Response To Decellularized ECM Biomaterials - Humanized rodent models have been used extensively for studying autoimmune diseases, viral infections, xenogeneic transplantation and, more recently, allogenic stem cell transplantation; however, until now, researchers have not used these murine models for studies in the field of biomaterials. In their recent paper published in Biomaterials, Wang et al used a humanized mouse model to “assess the human immune response… Continue Reading >
  • Early Discovery In Rats And Humanized Rodents - Do you have a compound and want a quick and cost effective in vivo evaluation?  We offer a range of preliminary in vivo capabilities as well as the ability to screen compounds in both traditional animal rodent models, such as Sprague-Dawley rats and genetically engineered models (custom services & in vivo liver gene delivery available) including “humanized” liver rodent models,… Continue Reading >
  • Humanized Mice As Preclinical Models For Liver Stage Malaria Infection - Malaria continues to affect 250 million people around the world and causes more than half a million deaths each year. And especially given the global heath community’s current goal of malaria eradication (as opposed to the past approach of merely keeping the parasite at bay), it is increasingly important for researchers to have access to a readily available, scalable in… Continue Reading >
  • HIS Mice Provide New Preclinical Model For Human Skin Immunity - Despite the convenience and appeal of oral therapies, the reality is that immunotherapies cannot be effectively administered by mouth due to the undesirable breakdown of important immunologically active proteins that would occur in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. In particular, research shows that vaccine-based immunotherapy treatments are best administered via skin injections. However, until now researchers have really lacked an appropriate… Continue Reading >
  • What’s Old Is New Again: Chemical Carcinogenesis Models Of Cancer - Early cancer research focused primarily on chemical carcinogenesis in rat models and helped establish clear causal links between environmental chemicals and increased risk of cancer in exposed populations. And although cancer research has gotten significantly more sophisticated over the past century, researchers are signaling that chemical carcinogenesis models of cancer are resurging in relevance once again. Thanks to recent breakthroughs… Continue Reading >
  • New Mouse Model Enables In Vivo Assessment Of Immunotherapies For Treating CGD - Chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) is best described as an immune deficiency caused by a genetic mutation that results in defects in the production of microbicidal reactive oxygen species (ROS) by phagocytes. As a result, patients suffering from CGD are highly susceptible to a variety of bacterial and fungal infections. Thus far, effective treatments for CGD have been limited. Stem cell… Continue Reading >
  • Patient Derived Xenografts Possess Significant Advantages In The Study Of Urological Tumors - The more researchers learn about various cancers, the complexity of the human disease is becoming more obvious. For researchers to model this complexity ongoing studies involving patient derived xenograft (PDX) murine models continuously show significant advantages when compared to the conventional cell-line-derived xenograft (CDX) mice. According to Inoue, et al in a paper recently published in peer-reviewed journal, Nature Review Urology,… Continue Reading >
  • In Vivo Liver Gene Delivery - The in vivo delivery of transgenes into the liver of rats provide a rapid method for the creation of liver specific disease models, as well as gene therapy efficacy and toxicity testing models, without the time and cost for embryo modification and transgenic animal creation. By combining the highly efficient liver-targeting properties of rAAV with the piggyBac transposon, the transgene… Continue Reading >
  • Bacterial Carriers Offer New Hope In The Treatment Of Glioblastoma - Unlike many cancers, which have seen a tremendous increase in effective treatment options and, as a result, an increase in survival rates, the prognosis for patients diagnosed with glioblastoma (GBM) brain tumors remains pretty bleak. One of the biggest challenges associated with GBM is the fact that the blood-brain barrier prevents efficient drug dosing to tumors through traditional methods. Viral… Continue Reading >
  • Rat Models Provide Superior Insights Into Mutagenic/Carcinogenic Responses In Humans - Although in-vitro bacterial mutation assays and murine models have long been the gold standard for identifying DNA reactive genotoxic chemicals, the Ames Test method (as this is widely known) has significant limitations, which is why many researchers are now turning to transgenic rat models for toxicological studies. This is because the rat model offers numerous advantages over its mouse counterparts:… Continue Reading >