Avatar mice are becoming important allies in cancer research. A research team at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital has been studying cancer using a new type of lab mouse that can host human cancer cells. The goal is to help personalize treatment for individual patients.
Working with Jackson Laboratory, a nonprofit research center in Bar Harbor Maine, they have developed a new kind of mouse that can be implanted with human cancer cells. By testing drugs on these mice, scientists can learn how a human patient will respond.
Dr. Anette Duensing and Dr. Maria Debiec-Rychter, Members of the LRG Research Team, have been using mouse strains that do not reject human tissue (Nude athymic mice and SCID mice) as well to test therapeutic regimens in vivo. Watch for the October LRG newsletter for a detailed description of their exciting research.
More about the study can be found in this Boston Globe article.
