BioCentury
ARTICLE | Cover Story

HCV's mighty mouse

June 16, 2011 7:00 AM UTC

The most widely used animal model of HCV infection requires transplanting human hepatocytes into immunodeficient mice. These mice are useful for testing antivirals, but the absence of an immune system makes the animals unsuitable for studying other classes of HCV products such as vaccines and immunotherapeutics. Now, researchers from The Rockefeller University have developed an immunocompetent, genetically humanized mouse that allows limited HCV infection, albeit not replication.1

The researchers are in discussions with an undisclosed company interested in exclusivelylicensing the technology to evaluate HCV entry inhibitors and vaccines...