Studying the fundamental causes of serious diseases

The Laboratory of Cell Regeneration and Plasticity and the PIGMOD Centre of the Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics of the CAS in Liběchov have been using their unique biomedical models – miniature pigs – to study fundamental causes of serious diseases, identify new biomarkers and search for new therapeutic methods (including those based on cell therapy and genetic therapy) to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, traumatic spinal cord injury and human melanoma. Special transgenic minipigs carrying human mutated huntingtin allow researchers to investigate in detail the fatal neurodegenerative disorder called Huntington’s disease.