genOway of France, Europe's leading provider of transgenic cellular and animal models, has succeeded in producing the world's first cloned rats in collaboration with scientists at the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA).
The rat is one of the most widely used animal models in scientific research, and cloning will aid in the development of genetically modified rat models that can be used as reliable, reproducible models of disease processes, according to the researchers, who have published the work in the journal Science.
genOway said it was able to clone the rat by applying a proprietary technology platform derived from nuclear transfer, an achievement made all the more impressive by the fact that several research teams have been trying to clone rats for years. Furthermore, the firm's technology can be used to generate targeted mutations in the clones, thereby selecting for desired genetic traits and providing a fast-track towards customised GM animals for research.
"The success we have announced today represents an important result for the pharmaceutical industry, as bio-pharmaceutical companies can now look forward to significant productivity increases in their R&D process by using genetically modified rats," said Alexandre Fraichard, CEO of genOway.
He said the company is currently working on building an international consortium that would bring together pharmaceutical companies and biotech companies with the objective of developing animals with specific genetic modifications (so-called knock-out and knock-in rats), that could be used in the discovery of drugs for diseases such as hypertension, obesity, diabetes and neurological disorders.
Rats are physiologically closer to humans than most other species used in research, and are reliable models for the study of many human diseases, as well as for the discovery of new druggable targets and therapeutic molecules, according to Prof M Lazdunski, a pharmacologist and Director of the Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology Institute (CNRS) in France.
"The vast amount of physiological data collected on the rat over decades - makes it a research model of key importance for many human pathologies," he said.
A discussion of the value that can be achieved using genetically-modified rats in research is available here on the US National Institutes of Health website.