Research

Our research team has concentrated its area of interest in the production of in vivo and in vitro embryos, embryo micromanipulation and the production of transgenic animals. During the last 10 years we have generated and applied this knowledge both in laboratory animals and in species of productive interest. The technologies that we have developed have interest in the field of biomedicine, pharmaceutical industry and animal production in the farming area. It is important to emphasize that our group has set up new technologies not used in the country until now, that have led for example to the production of the first transgenic animals born in Uruguay using the techniques of pronuclear microinjection and homologous recombination in embryonic stem cells.

Some of the research areas of the unit by the generation of diverse transgenic murine models, are the studies of genes linked to cancer, neurodegenerative or immune diseases. Another research area is in the generation of transgenic sheep for the production of recombinant proteins. This last research area is developed in collaboration with the laboratory of Jean Paul Renard at INRA, Jouy en Josas, France. These activities represent an important support for the scientific structure of the region, since the Transgenic and Experimental Animal Unit provides genetically modified animals to different groups in the regional countries.