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New Solution: reducing animals in transgenic breeding programmes


21 March 2014

Ostara Biomedical is seeking partners with skills in mouse zygote and blastocyst transfer to validate the effectiveness of a novel pessary approach to induce pseudopregnancy and reduce animals in transgenic breeding programmes.

The number of transgenic mice, generated primarily as models of human disease, has risen in recent years to the extent that nearly half of all animals in research are now those in transgenic mouse breeding programmes. Ostara is addressing this issue by developing a vaginal pessary designed to efficiently induce pseudopregnancy in female mice, effectively replacing the need for vasectomised males which are currently widely used for this purpose. While Ostara’s pessary-based innovation aims to eliminate the need to undertake male sterilisation operations, it also has the potential to significantly reduce the number of females required to ensure the timely generation of sufficient pseudopregnant recipients, through the increased efficacy and reliability of this approach.

For more information about the technology and to contact Ostara