• 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.

• 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 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

• Many C. elegans genes have human orthologs, for relevant disease models.
• Compatible with targeted and random genetic modification for target identification.
• Transgenic expression for models of human inherited diseases.
• Existing mutant and transgenic strains available for research.
• Track record of relevance to disease e. g. ageing, neurodegeneration, cancer, metabolism.

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

• 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.