Menu

Accelerate and de-risk the 
leap from in-vitro to animal studies

C. elegans can help de-risk your move from cells to mice with confidence.
  • Whole-organism model without the complexity of mammals.
  • High gene conservation and amenability to transgenic techniques.
  • Small organism with a short lifecycle for speed and cost efficiency.

Vs

More complex than a cell, less complex than a mouse

  • Whole organism with nervous system, muscle, intestine and reproductive system.
  • Less space, larger populations and faster experiments than mice.
  • No regulatory restrictions.
  • Transparent body for easy live visualisation of eg. GFP-tagged targets.
  • Reduces unnecessary mammalian testing by prescreening in worms.
  • 2-3 weeks lifespan and slows down within a week of adulthood.
  • Test interventions on natural ageing rather than models of accelerated ageing.
  • Worms are whole organisms with consistent physiology, compared to in-vitro cells which are more variable.
  • Worms have many of the cell types found in humans, including epithelial cells, neuronal cells, and muscle cells.
  • Worms have a large population size which means many organisms can be studied at a fraction of the cost of studying the same number of mammals.
  • Worms have an intrinsic host-microbe interaction and it’s easy to make worms germ-free, compared to mice where this is complex and costly.
  • Worms have protein targets that are conserved enough.
  • Worms lend themselves well to knocking out targets faster and more easily than with mice.
  • Can put human proteins in the worm via transgenics much more easily than doing this in mice.

Results take at least months with mice or trying to test everything across every cell type in-vitro or using organoids. With worms, you can get the results you need in as little as 3 weeks and still see the effects on whole organisms, not just at a cellular level.

Mice studies typically cost tens of thousands of dollars even for very small studies, and bigger studies can cost hundreds of thousands. Worms show multiple endpoints and can answer some of the same research questions as mice in many areas at a fraction of the cost.

C. elegans have no regulatory or ethical constraints and are 3R compliant.

Worms

  • Worms are whole organisms with consistent physiology, compared to in-vitro cells which are more variable.
  • Worms have many of the cell types found in humans, including epithelial cells, neuronal cells, and muscle cells.
  • Worms have a large population size which means many organisms can be studied at a fraction of the cost of studying the same number of mammals.
  • Worms have an intrinsic host-microbe interaction and it’s easy to make worms germ-free, compared to mice where this is complex and costly.

Targets

  • Worms have protein targets that are conserved enough
  • Worms lend themselves well to knocking out targets faster and more easily than with mice
  • Can put human proteins in the worm via transgenics much more easily than doing this in mice

Results

Results take at least months with mice or trying to test everything across every cell type in-vitro or using organoids. With worms, you can get the results you need in as little as 3 weeks and still see the effects on whole organisms, not just at a cellular level.

Costs

Mice studies typically cost tens of thousands of dollars even for very small studies, and bigger studies can cost hundreds of thousands. Worms show multiple endpoints and can answer some of the same research questions as mice in many areas at a fraction of the cost.

C.elegans

C. elegans have no regulatory or ethical constraints and are 3R compliant

High gene conservation and amenability to modification

Fast, natural ageing model

  • 2-3 weeks lifespan and slows down within a week of adulthood.
  • Test interventions on natural ageing rather than models of accelerated ageing.

Short lifecycle for Developmental and Reproductive Toxicity (DART) studies

  • Used as indicator species for pesticide toxicity.
  • 300 progeny per self-fertilising hermaphrodite worm in 3 days.
  • Additional long-term toxicity using ageing adult mobility scoring.
  • Good concordance for known toxicity in mammalian models.

Good assays need expert scientists

C. elegans have many advantages as an in-vivo model but have historically not been easily accessible to industrial R&D because accessing the technologies and specialist knowledge and skill required isn’t easy. In addition, traditional uses of C. elegans are limited by a manual approach to assays. At Magnitude Biosciences, we have two missions: embrace automation to ensure C. elegans studies are reproducible and robust, and bring the benefits of using C. elegans to the biotech, pharma and other industries through our commercial lab services and world-class team of C. elegans and automated imaging experts.

  •  Microbiome

    A powerful whole organism model for microbiome research

  • Neurodegeneration

    A proven whole organism model for neurodegenerative disease research

  • Toxicity

    A powerful whole organism model for detecting toxicity for the environment and human health

  • Ageing

    A powerful whole organism model for accelerating ageing research

  • Transgenics

    Making transgenics requires specialist equipment, expertise and time.

We provide invaluable tools to accelerate
R&D across different industries

Our team has rich experience helping researchers in these sectors

biotech

Biotech

Biotech professionals must progress their drug discovery R&D timelines fast in order to make the best use of their funding and IP. We help you take the jump from petri dish to mammal in-vivo models with confidence and more quickly than going straight to rodent models.

Find out more

biotech

Health and Manufacturing

Consumer goods, manufacturing and other industries investing in R&D want to put the best quality, eco-friendly products out on the market. However, testing your compounds for impact on environmental and human health can lead to overly complex, ethically challenging and time-consuming studies with animal models. C. elegans offers an ethical approach that can get the data you need on your compound in as little as three weeks.

Find out more

biotech

Pharma

The pressure on drug developers is greater than ever and pharma need to look to innovative new tools to stay ahead of the competition. C. elegans offer an NC3Rs-approved avenue to fast-track preclinical research, to save you from or reduce your reliance on high-investment rodent studies.

Find out more

biotech

Academia

You want to progress your research and improve lab operations but access to the right technologies, technological expertise and the time to juggle everything is challenging. We offer high-quality C. elegans lab services, transgenics services, and machine leasing of our unique automated technology to help you stay top of your field.

Find out more

CONTACT US

Get in touch today to find out how we can 
support you to accelerate your research

CONTACT US

Get in touch today to find out how we can 
support you to accelerate your research
linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram