The laboratory is the pillar on which the greatest value of Ovohorse – Ovoclone is based. It is within it, thanks to scientific advances and our professional team, that the most innovative and cutting-edge techniques are carried out to achieve a unique result in the world: animal cloning. Today, on World Laboratory Science Day, we will see first-hand how work is carried out to achieve the highest success rates in replicating animals of high genetic value.
Giovana Bustamante is the laboratory manager. Like every day, she arrives before 9 a.m. at her workplace to set up and prepare all the meticulous details needed to work safely and in compliance with all the required quality protocols before beginning the procedures.
“I always follow the same routine. I arrive at the facilities, go into the changing room and put on the appropriate clothing so I can enter the laboratory with complete safety,” says Giovana Bustamante, who explains to us what a day in the life of a specialist embryologist is like.
Once ready, she enters her office to carry out her work: “First of all, we check the conditions, which must be optimal. For this, we verify every control of temperature and gases, as well as the optimal conditions of the equipment, both the laminar flow hood and the incubators, which are the engine where embryos and cell lines develop.”
She is not alone in the laboratory. Alongside her, excellent professionals work hard as a team to achieve the true outcome of all these processes: animal cloning. This represents a contribution to science that, even in 2025, continues to be innovative and, at times, unfamiliar to the public. “For us, celebrating World Laboratory Science Day is important, as we reflect on the impact science has on people’s lives. It is important for us to highlight the work we carry out as a team, as well as the commitment we show 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 makes the practice of cloning successfully possible: “We have the best technology and techniques. The techniques we use most frequently, for example, are preservation and cryopreservation. Also, the technique of Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) in horses, and nuclear transfer from somatic cells in horses as well as in dogs, cats…”
The viability of these techniques, as well as the survival of spermatozoa and somatic cells, depends on the strict quality protocols that are carried out daily in the laboratory, as mentioned earlier.
A good example of this is, precisely, Giovana Bustamante, who off-camera – and laughing – describes herself as “obsessed” with protocols. “I am very rigorous with quality protocols. For me it’s like eating, I always do it thoroughly every day. And it’s another step I never skip.”
“We carry out strict quality protocols regarding gas concentration and temperature. In addition, we perform quality controls on the media we use, as it is the main component where the embryos will develop, and we need to have everything aligned in order to achieve an adequate embryonic development rate,” she says in this overview of her daily work as an embryologist in a laboratory specialised in animal cloning.
A routine and strict task is what Giovana Bustamante and her entire team face every day. Such is the requirement of working inside the laboratory. At times, it is more exciting—especially when they carry out the techniques mentioned or when the clone is finally born; at other times, it is more methodical and research-focused.