Yecuris Corporation

Yecuris supplies liver-humanized mice and human hepatocytes from a facility in the Portland area of Oregon, and runs studies on that platform.^[S1][S2] The central asset is the FRG KO mouse, an immunodeficient animal whose own liver cells are progressively replaced by transplanted human hepatocytes; the company states that livers are more than 70% repopulated with human cells.^[S2] The same donor hepatocytes are also sold for use in culture, which the company presents as its distinguishing feature: one donor, used both in an animal and in a dish.^[S5][S10] The company was founded by Dr. Markus Grompe using technology from his laboratory at Oregon Health & Science University.^[S1]

What the company conducts, and what it does not

The company describes its own position inconsistently, and this matters when deciding what can be placed here. The home page tagline reads "Liver Humanized Mice and CRO Services".^[S10] The about page instead offers to work with the client, with the client's preferred contract research organization, or through a network of providers.^[S1] The infectious disease page is explicit that studies to a client's specification are completed through partner organizations rather than in-house.^[S7] Read together, the reasonable interpretation is a platform and model supplier that also conducts work on its own platform, with some study types routed to partners. A sponsor should establish which category a specific study falls into, and where it will physically be performed, before contracting.

The platform

FRG KO liver-humanized mice

The FRG designation refers to a triple knockout of Fah, Rag2 and Il2rg on a C57BL/6 background, which the company states was originally reported by Azuma and colleagues in 2007.^[S2] The first of those deletions makes the mouse's own hepatocytes dependent on a protective drug; withdrawing it creates the selective pressure under which transplanted human cells expand, and the company describes engraftment as sustained over the animal's life with continued dosing of that reagent.^[S2] The other two deletions remove the immune compartments that would otherwise reject human cells. Animals are described as housed and shipped from a barrier facility in Portland, Oregon.^[S2] Custom transplantation is offered using any donor and any species, alongside custom generation of liver-humanized animals.^[S9]

HepaCur human hepatocytes

Primary human hepatocytes that have been passaged through the mouse are sold fresh or cryopreserved.^[S5] The practical consequence, which the company states directly, is that the same donor cells can be used in vivo and in vitro.^[S10] For a programme that runs a cell assay and an animal study on the same question, that removes one variable, since a difference between the two results cannot be attributed to donor difference. Whether it removes the more important variables is a separate question this profile does not address.

Application areas, as described by the company

Drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics is the longest-standing use, and the company publishes worked examples on named compounds including propafenone, midazolam, lamotrigine and diclofenac, plus one on lipoprotein production.^[S4] Gene and cell therapy work is framed as screening a delivery vehicle or payload in the hepatocytes first and validating in the animal afterwards, including screening of adeno-associated virus serotypes.^[S6] Hepatotropic infection work covers malaria and viral hepatitis B, C and E, routed through partner organizations.^[S7] Steatohepatitis models are diet-induced on the humanized background, with metabolic monitoring of body weight, food consumption, cholesterol, glucose and insulin, and pathology reported with the activity score and fibrosis stage.^[S8] Toxicology appears in the company's own list of service areas but no dedicated page or named study type was found for it.^[S1]

Quality, compliance, and animal welfare

No statement about good laboratory practice, AAALAC International accreditation, USDA registration, an OLAW Animal Welfare Assurance, or an institutional animal care and use committee was found on any of the ten pages reviewed for this profile.^[S1][S2][S9] The only related language located was a description of animals as pathogen free and of the facility as a barrier facility, with no named accrediting or registering body.^[S2] This is an absence of published disclosure on the pages found, not a finding about the company's internal arrangements, and a dedicated quality page may exist that was not located. It is worth noting because the company conducts in-life animal work at its own facility, and because most other profiles on this site were able to record at least one such statement. AAALAC International accreditation is a voluntary evaluation of an institution's animal care and use program, re-evaluated every three years,^[R3] and USDA registration and an OLAW Animal Welfare Assurance relate to the Animal Welfare Act and the PHS Policy respectively;^[R4][R5] none of these establishes GLP compliance, which applies to individual studies.^[R2] FDA does not approve or certify laboratories; registration with FDA does not denote approval.^[R6] A sponsor whose study needs to be conducted under the good laboratory practice regulation should treat this as the first question to settle, not the last.^[R2]

Ownership, leadership, and unresolved details

The company became part of the Janvier Group, based in France, on January 30, 2024, with existing management retained: Rob Copenhaver as chief executive, Patrick Duong as director of finance, and Dr. Devorah Goldman as scientific director.^[S3] Two details could not be resolved. The company gives no explicit founding year; a statement that organizations have used its tools since 2007 may describe when the technology became available rather than when the corporation was formed.^[S1] And the location is given two ways: the about page lists only a post office box in Tualatin, Oregon, while the acquisition announcement hosted on the same site describes operations continuing from a Portland location.^[S1][S3] No employee count was found on any page reviewed.^[S1]

Company facts