‘Humanizing’ Mice to Advance Research
January 17, 2019 Leave a comment

Dr. Whalen
Mice are playing a key role in cancer research at the UMass Cancer Avatar Institute. “Humanized” mice carry functioning human genes, cells, tissues or organs, which are then used to study the efficiency of human therapies. One form of therapy being tested by Giles Whalen, MD, chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology and Endocrine Surgery, is immunotherapy. “The mice avatars are a superb tool for understanding which immunotherapy drugs might work or should be developed further, and to understand why a particular treatment is working or not, before taking it into clinical trials with human patients,” Dr. Whalen said. Read more in our UMass Memorial Health Care 2017 Annual Report of Cancer Services.