Technology Features in 2019

Applying the molecular scissors to animals at scale is helping researchers delve into the potential roles of different genes.

Whether the animal has a few hundred neurons or a few billion, mapping the ‘brain’ is a complex endeavor for which there are several different tacks one might take. Data collection continues on.

Caring for lab animals is always a priority. But some, depending on the research they are being used for, can require extra attention. As the animals in question get bigger, the task of keeping them in contained facilities can just get a bit more challenging.

Alzheimer’s disease remains untreatable, despite decades of preclinical research to understand it better and find therapeutic targets. New ways of thinking about a variety animal models are rising to the challenge.

There are animals out there with unique phenotypes that could yield insight into human health and disease. Meet three such fishes from waters around the world: Antarctic icefish, Mexican cavefish, and Atlantic killfish.

These 3D structures derived from human cells can be an improvement over simple cell lines, but organoids can still lack important physiological cues for development. Finding the right in vivo environment can take things a step further.

Researchers can’t sit their laboratory mice or fruit flies down and ask them how they’re feeling or why they’re behaving in a particular way. Instead, humans are left to observe and interpret the various clues their animals provide. Can machines help?

As methods to create new mouse models advance, protecting the intellectual property those animals represent is getting more complicated.

Genome sequencing technologies are improving, and researchers have their eyes on a lot more animals.

Large animal models can be important translational steps between basic research in rodents and clinical care in humans. Ever thought about a pig?

Can the computer eliminate the lab animal? As computational methods become more advanced and data more freely available, in silico modeling approaches have growing potential to help reduce the number of animals needed to test chemical toxicity.