Reacción a "Many of the mouse models used in laboratories show inconsistencies between their names and their genetic makeup, according to an analysis"

This is an interesting topic. In laboratories, we crossbreed and conduct experiments with strains of inbred mice that have been produced by backcrossing parents and offspring over successive generations until the two copies of each gene tend to be identical, and thus the offspring are as genetically identical as possible. Genetic variation occurs, which creates problems in experimental repetitions and replicates across different laboratories. The authors provide evidence and analysis showing that these problems occur within the scientific community and argue that they affect the reproducibility of results across laboratories.

They propose standardizing genetic quality control processes to specifically identify the identity of the mouse strain used in the experiments reported in a given publication. This is clearly an initiative that will likely be implemented and that will ensure these genetic characterizations of mouse strains are performed systematically and reported alongside publications of experimental results. In my opinion, this is an interesting initiative that, in the field of cancer research—and specifically in cancer immunology and immunotherapy—can prevent problems, but at the same time, it will add some additional costs to the final price of experimentation.