A translational large-animal program using IVF, embryo culture, CRISPR/Cas systems, and molecular validation to support porcine disease-model research.
This project sat at the practical center of porcine reproductive biotechnology: producing developmentally competent embryos, applying genome-editing systems, and validating the embryo-level work needed before large-animal models can become useful translational research tools. It connected routine IVF and embryo culture skill with the more demanding question of how edited embryos can support disease-model design.
Before a genome-edited pig can become a disease model, the project needs reliable oocyte handling, IVF, embryo culture, editing delivery, and validation. This work treated embryo production as a core translational capability rather than a technical prelude.
My role focused on reproductive biotechnology execution: supporting embryo production, culture decisions, genome-editing workflows, and the interpretation of embryo-development outcomes in relation to downstream animal-model goals.
The work combined porcine IVF, in vitro embryo culture, CRISPR/Cas-based editing, and molecular validation. That combination made the project both developmental biology and translational infrastructure.
The same embryo-culture questions carried into the FBS blastocyst culture publication: if embryos are the starting material for model development, then culture conditions, viability, and developmental competence are central evidence, not background methods.
Use porcine oocyte maturation, IVF, and culture workflows to generate embryos suitable for downstream editing and assessment.
Introduce CRISPR/Cas strategies within the constraints of embryo handling, viability, and developmental timing.
Connect embryo development and molecular validation so edited embryos can be interpreted as credible model-building material.
Use embryo-culture observations to guide later questions about extended blastocyst viability and defined supplement comparisons.