Taconic Insights

Rodent irradiation is an important tool in immunology and oncology rodent studies and has been critical in learning about tumor biology, transplant biology and immune system function. Understanding the biophysical and biological factors involved in irradiation studies is critical for optimizing model performance and improving experimental results. Irradiation preferentially kills rapidly dividing cells, including bone marrow and epithelial cells of the gut and other organs. The most...

Three years ago, Taconic Biosciences and the University of Copenhagen came together to sponsor an Industrial PhD student through a program supported by Innovation Fund Denmark (IFD). IFD invests in new knowledge and technology creating growth and employment in Denmark. The Industrial PhD Program The Industrial PhD program provides opportunities to students that might not otherwise be available in a traditional PhD program. Applicants accepted into the...

Studying the long-term complications of diabetic pathology is more relevant than ever, driving increased interest in animal models of type 2 diabetes. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) the number of people with diabetes (includes both type 1 and type 2) has risen from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014. "[Diabetes] is a major cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke, and...

On May 25, 2017, Dr. Madhav Paranjpe presented a webinar on the state of evidence surrounding the use of Tg.RasH2 carcinogenicity studies as a substitute for the two-year mouse bioassay. His presentation — "Historical Control Database of Spontaneous Lesions (Neoplastic & Non-Neoplastic) in Transgenic Tg.rasH2 Mice" — covered evidence drawn from fifty peer-reviewed studies, personal experience, and analysis of the growing body of historical control data supporting...

The gut microbiome may contribute to or modulate the pain of visceral hypersensitivity, but how the microbiome affects neurotransmission, pain perception, and GI function is not well understood. Pokusaeva and colleagues hypothesized that production of the neurotransmitter γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) by gut bacteria such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium might be one mechanism through which the microbiome-gut-brain axis functions to modulate visceral pain. Connecting the Microbiome and Visceral...

Mice engrafted with a human immune system — HIS or humanized mice — have secured important roles as efficacy models in the immuno-oncology therapeutic development pipeline. Several impressive examples of efficacy studies in humanized mice were on display at the 2017 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting. Efficacy Studies in Humanized Mice at AACR 2017 Upon engraftment of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), super-immunodeficient models,...

Taconic AAI 2017 travel grant awardee, Trivendra Tripathi (left) and Taconic Field Applications Scientist, Philip Dubé Taconic Biosciences awarded this year's AAI Travel Grant to Dr. Trivendra Tripathi, who presented his work on immunotherapy for graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Immunologists in Washington, DC. As a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. HyeMee Joo at the Baylor Institute...

As the opioid crisis continues, every week brings new and alarming developments, legislative attempts to address the epidemic, and new formulations of street drugs which are contaminated, or resistant to naloxone. This has sparked a variety of debates concerning how we can best address the situation. From a public health perspective, however, the need to explore relevant and predictive animal models of addiction and develop novel strategies...

Understanding what germ-free mice are, the opportunities that they offer, and how you can obtain them will help you decide how best to incorporate these models into your research program. The body is inhabited by trillions of microorganisms (the microbiome, consisting of bacteria, fungi, viruses, etc.) which play major roles in health and disease. Axenic or germ-free mice, specially-raised animals devoid of all microorganisms, are increasingly powerful...

For his work investigating mechanisms connecting SNS-mediated microenvironmental effects to prostate cancer progression, Ali Zahalka was awarded Taconic Biosciences' American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2017 Annual Meeting Travel Award. "Our lab is interested in identifying factors that promote early-stage cancer progression," Ali told Taconic, "with the aim of developing novel therapeutic interventions." Taconic's 2017 AACR Travel Grant Winner An MD/PhD candidate in the lab of Dr....