The laboratory is the pillar on which the maximum value of Ovohorse – Ovoclone is based. It is in the laboratory, thanks to scientific advances and our professional team, where the most innovative and cutting-edge techniques are carried out to obtain a unique result in the world, animal cloning. Today, World Science Day in the Laboratory, we will learn first-hand how they work to obtain the best success rates in replicating animals of high genetic value.
Giovana Bustamante is laboratory manager. Like every day, she arrives at her workplace before 9 a.m. to set up and prepare all the meticulous details to work safely and comply with all the necessary quality protocols prior to the practices.
“I always go through the same routine. I arrive at the facilities, go into the changing room and put on my appropriate clothing so that I can enter the laboratory in complete safety,” says Giovana Bustamante, who explains what a day in the life of a specialist embryologist is like.
Once prepared, she enters her office to do her work: “First of all, we check the conditions, which must be optimal. To do this, we check every temperature and gas control, as well as the optimal conditions of the equipment, both the laminar flow hood and the incubators, which is the engine where the embryos and cell lines develop”.
She is not alone in the laboratory. At her side, excellent professionals are working hard as a team to obtain the real result of all these processes, animal cloning. This is a contribution to science that even in 2025 is still new and sometimes unknown to the general public. “For us, celebrating World Science Day in the Lab is important because we reflect on the impact science has on people’s lives. For us, it is important to emphasise the work we do as a team, as well as the commitment we have in every process and every day,” continues the manager, visibly proud to lead a laboratory with the most cutting-edge technology on the market.
It is this cutting-edge technology that enables the successful practice of cloning: “We have the best technology and techniques. The techniques we use most, for example, are preservation and cryopreservation. Also the technique of Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) in equine, and nuclear transfer from somatic cells in equine and also in dogs, cats…”.
The viability of these techniques plus the survival of spermatozoa and somatic cells depends on the strict quality protocols that are carried out – on a daily basis – in the laboratory, as mentioned above.
Giovana Bustamante, who laughingly describes herself as ‘obsessed’ with the protocols outside of filming, is proof of this. “I am very rigorous with quality protocols. For me it’s like eating, I always do it exhaustively every day. And it’s another step I never skip”.
“We do strict quality protocols in terms of gas concentration and temperature. In addition, we do quality controls of the media we use, as it is the main component where the embryos are going to develop and we need to have everything aligned to have an adequate rate of embryo development,” she says in this review of her daily work as an embryologist in a laboratory specialising in animal cloning.
Giovana Bustamante and her entire team have a routine and strict daily task. This is what the work in the laboratory requires. Sometimes it is more exciting, especially when they carry out the techniques mentioned above or when the clone is finally born; other times it is more methodical and research…
