Animal Biotechnology
 

Animal Biotechnology Group is led by Professor Leena Alhonen. The Animal Biotechnology Group has carried out pioneering work in the production of transgenic and gene-disrupted animals in Finland. The academic interest of the group focuses on the physiology of polyamines. We use genetically modified animal models with altered polyamine homeostasis to study the regulation of polyamine metabolism in vivo as well as to investigate the mechanisms leading to their phenotypic characteristics related to immune system or to carbohydrate, lipid and energy metabolism. The animals also serve as tools to study the polyamine requirement in differentiation and tumorigenesis, and as experimental models of some human diseases, e.g. acute necrotizing pancreatitis.

The group continues to act as a core facility for the production of transgenic rodents (pronuclear injection or lentivirus-mediated transgenesis) and for automated DNA sequencing.