April 25-30, 2025 | McCormick Place Convention Center Chicago, IL

Join Taconic Biosciences to discuss the latest breakthroughs in Oncology Research

AACR Annual Meeting 2025

Our experts will be at the American Association for Cancer Research® (AACR) Annual Meeting 2025 to advise and collaborate on strategies, products, and services to enable your breakthroughs in oncology research. Consult with a Taconic scientist  to find the right in vivo model to support your research program.  Not affiliated with or endorsed by AACR.

Taconic Biosciences uniquely combines a broad portfolio of models, including advanced genetically engineered models (GEMs) and humanized immune system (HIS), with expertise in oncology model generation and breeding. This is paired with industry leading scientific support that provides our customers with the best solution

NEW! Taconic huSelect™ services for CD34+ humanized immune system models

Taconic offers a suite of custom humanization capabilities to improve quality and consistency of therapeutic study outcomes by reducing donor-to-donor variability.


Spotlight Theatre | April 29, 2025, 10:00am - 11:00am CST

Strategies for Improved Engraftment and Data Reproducibility in Humanized Immune System (HIS) Mice

Mice

Speakers:
Monika Buczek, Director, Humanized Immune Model Core, Taconic Biosciences, Inc.
Jessica Orf, Principal Scientist II, Gilead Sciences, Inc.

Humanized immune system (HIS) mice are valuable tools in advancing our understanding of human disease. These models play a critical role in studying immune-based conditions, including immuno-oncology and autoimmune disorders. Despite their potential, HIS models face challenges, particularly with CD34+ stem cell engraftment, where donor variability can significantly impact data quality and reproducibility.

We explore these hurdles and provide best practices to improve outcomes. Key topics include tailored donor selection strategies based on HLA criteria, advanced donor characterization techniques, and flow cytometry solutions from Taconic Biosciences, all designed to enhance results and reduce costs in the preclinical pipeline. This presentation will also feature a case study on the application of humanized mice in preclinical drug development given by Dr. Jessica Orf from Gilead Sciences.

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Schedule a Meeting With Taconic Biosciences at the Event

Taconic scientists are available to help you navigate through model selection and design that best fit your research program. Complete the form to meet with an expert and discover how to accelerate your drug discovery pipeline.

A look back at our 2024 Poster Presentations

 View Poster | Presented by AgonOx

Using Taconic hIL-2 NOG mice, scientists at AgonOx showcased the power of expanded DP TIL therapy against autologous tumors. This is the first study showing that CD8 T cells with an exhausted phenotype isolated from human tumors can be expanded to billions of cells and induce tumor regression in vivo.

 View Poster | EPO in collaboration with Taconic

In a collaboration between researchers at Taconic and EPO, scientists used the Taconic FcResolv® hIL-15 NOG and the hIL-15 NOG mouse models to understand therapeutic antibody efficacy in the context of cancer. 

Overall, results demonstrate that FcResolv® hIL-15 NOG mice serve as a suitable mouse model for a more accurate assessment of the therapeutic efficacy of anti-tumor antibodies. Additionally, evaluation of human-mediated ADCC of therapeutic antibodies in NK cell-humanized FcResolv® hIL-15 NOG mice allows detection of effects specifically mediated by human NK cells.

 View Poster | Taconic in collaboration with IDEXX BioAnalytics 

Scientists at Taconic and IDEXX BioAnalytics collaborated to understand how chimerism in humanized immune system mice can be assessed using digital PCR. In addition to technical limitations associated with traditional flow cytometry, repeated bleeding of mice can negatively affect their health, making digital PCR a more robust method as it requires a smaller blood volume (10 µL compared to 75 µL in flow cytometry). 

Overall, the digital PCR assay shows excellent correlation for all three human genes against chimerism as measured by flow cytometry of the peripheral blood at 10 weeks post engraftment. This assay may also be useful to investigate other mouse-human chimera models, including mice harboring functional human hepatocytes, tumors, and other cells.

View Poster | University of Toronto, University Health Network, ETH Zurich, and Sinai Health System in collaboration with Taconic 

Using single-cell proteomic analyses, researchers used patient-derived xenografts in immunodeficient mouse models to characterize the tumor immune microenvironment. Humanized NOG-EXL (huNOG-EXL) mice offered by Taconic express human IL-3 and GM-CSF enabling both myeloid and lymphoid development. 

Notably, huNOG-EXL PDX mice contain all major human immune cell types including therapeutically relevant populations such as PD-1+ CD8+ T cells. The PDX immune microenvironment recapitulates key features of the primary tumor, with PDX replicates highly consistent.

View Poster | EPO in collaboration with Taconic

In a collaboration between Experimental Pharmacology & Oncology GmbH and Taconic Biosciences, researchers used NOG and next-generation NOG mouse models to investigate CDX and PDX engraftment and to assess the efficacy of checkpoint inhibitors. They found that NOG-EXL mice are characterized by the highest engraftment rate with a myeloid differentiation of immune cells, also observed in the hIL-6 NOG and FcResolv® NOG mouse strains. They also noted that these  humanized NOG models can be used to evaluate immunotherapies, with broad applications in immunology and oncology studies.

View Poster |Taconic in collaboration with Bolt Biotherapeutics  

In collaboration with scientists at Bolt Therapeutics, Taconic researchers sought to determine if parameters critical to drug discovery are consistent across batches of humanized immune system mice from the same donor by evaluating two independent cohorts of human tumor xenograft-bearing mice made using a common set of five different CD34+ cell donors. 

They found that the health trajectory, peripheral human immune cell engraftment, and PK profiles were similar across experiments for a given donor. The promising results of the study have broad implications in building donor profiles for greater predictability and facilitating study design for drug discovery.

View Poster |Taconic in collaboration with Oncodesign Services   

Researchers sought to determine how knocking out the Fc gamma receptor in a super immunodeficient mouse model would alter efficacy of an IgG4 mAb checkpoint inhibitor (anti-PD1), Overall, they remark that FcResolv® NOG strains represent a cleaner system for efficacy studies of antibody-based therapies which remove potential confounding variables due to interactions with murine Fc gamma receptor.

Accelerate Your Next Discovery

Taconic scientists are available to help you navigate through model selection and design that best fit your research program. Complete the form to meet with an expert and discover how to accelerate your drug discovery pipeline.