Scientists at UT Health San Antonio have engineered the world’s first humanized mouse model with a fully functioning human immune system, marking a breakthrough for biomedical research that could transform immunotherapy development and disease modeling.
According to a news release from UT Health, scientists have been creating “humanized” mice since the 1980s but none have had fully functional human immune systems — until now.
The goal of the multiyear project was to overcome the limitations of currently available living human models by creating a humanized mouse with a complete human immune system and humanlike gut microbiome capable of mounting specific antibody responses, according to a news release from the university.
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Casali, who has almost five decades of experience in immunology and is a leading researcher in molecular genetics, said the discovery opens up opportunities for in vivo experimentation for immunotherapies such as cancer checkpoint inhibitors, disease modeling and the development of human bacterial and viral vaccines.
