The demand for models to support SARS-CoV-2 research has evolved since the onset of the pandemic, continually shifting as investigators learn more about the mechanisms of the virus. A recent article in Lab Animal reviews how model providers like Taconic Biosciences are responding to the urgent, ever-changing need for mouse models uniquely suited to COVID-19 research. Taconic models discussed in the article include hACE2 lines originally developed to study SARS-CoV-1 and newly designed models developed on Taconic's B6 and super-immunodeficient backgrounds:
“...Taconic has been scaling up production of a handful of different genetically modified mice that express human proteins. These include several hACE2 lines that were developed at Chien-Te Tseng's lab at the University of Texas Medical Branch the for the first SARS, as well as Dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (dpp4) knockout and humanized DPP4vlines that Tseng's lab made to study MERS (DPP4 is a coronavirus co-receptor that SARS-CoV-2 may also take advantage of to enter host cells). The company is also collaborating with the National Emerging Infectious Disease Laboratories at Boston University for input on model design strategies and for validation of genetic models on Taconic's B6 and super-immunodeficient backgrounds.”
Read the complete article at: nature.com