Transgenic Animals

Transgenic animals have become an important tool for discovery and target validation from academic to pharmaceutical research and development. Many techniques have been devised to eliminate, add or mutate various genes and time their expression under predetermined conditions. These genetically engineered animals are then extensively phenotyped in hope to provide useful information about the gene’s function or validate if the animal is a suitable model of disease.

These are delicate projects and results must be interpreted and validated carefully. One critical aspect is to verify if the targeted gene has indeed been knocked-out or knocked-in, in which tissue, under which conditions, if there any remaining fragments, if the protein is produced etc. Many of these questions can be answered using Cytochem’s whole-body and developmental panels and tissue arrays by comparing with the wild-type counterparts.