Until now

In the early 1980s, the use of transgenic animals started to soar and was expected to fill the gap between gene discovery and function.
Today, animal models are based on classical transgenic animals that exhibit a genetic modification present in all tissues derived from the modified embryos.

There are two methods to produce transgenic animals:

•  One is transgenesis, in which a foreign gene is introduced into a fertilized mouse egg obtained from killed female mice. Injected embryos are placed in a foster female uterus and transgenic newborn mice are screened to find the gene of interest.
• The second method is gene targeting in which embryonic stem cells (ES cells) are genetically altered by microinjecting some extra genes into the cavity of an egg (e.g. a blastocyst composed of an aggregate of cells after 3.5 days of gestation) that is placed in the uterus of female mice. The cells divide and spread to all tissues of the embryos. Then, the offspring is crossed with wild type mice in order to obtain the homozygous mutants possessing two copies of the mutated gene.

A new animal concept approach

By using these first methods, it is possible to add a foreign gene, a mutated gene or to delete a host gene so that the gene is either expressed or repressed. Although the technological challenges were impressive at that time, now new tools give rise to a new animal concept approach. Vectalys starts a new research program that use recombinant adeno-associated vector (rAAV) to inject adult animal in a well defined- tissue to induce the genetic information only in the tissue and not in the whole organism. The goal is to generate more reliable models to the real human situation.

Vectalys stays in its skill by providing new tools for gene discovery and validation. For more information about the process or the developed animal models, please contact: Cet e-mail est protégé contre les robots collecteurs de mails, votre navigateur doit accepter le Javascript pour le voir