Scientists Are Keeping Some Alzheimer's Lab Mice Alive in the Midst of COVID-19

Researchers who study Alzheimer's in mice aim to maintain their work during the COVID-19 pandemic, reports Quartz . The animals are genetically engineered to carry mutations that make them more likely to develop Alzheimer's-like traits as they age, and they are a valuable resource in the effort to develop effective treatments. The mice's creators have had to practice a type of triage, in which less-developed lines will be kept alive and well until more staff can return to laboratories to breed, edit, and study them further. For more critical lines, scientists are finding ways to continue research so their progress will not be lost. Researchers at Maine's Jackson Laboratory, Indiana University, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of California at Irvine, and Sage Therapeutics have spent five years developing mouse models that account for several genetic risk factors simultaneously. "The big labor comes in aging and phenotyping," said Indiana University's Bruce Lamb. Each research group has decreased their in-lab staff to avoid spreading COVID-19, but they are hoping to maintain a separate list of personnel who can perform, in isolation, basic phenotyping tasks at critical ages, if necessary. The goal is that the quarantine will be over in time to resume lab work before any of the oldest specimens have died, so that the scientists can collect all the data they require without losing the time it took to develop the mice.