They grew bacteria from mouse faeces in the laboratory and tried different combinations of bacteria in infected mice.

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However, it is important to realise that the work so far has involved mice in the laboratory.

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After Novartis sorted through 2, 000 proteins in the genomic database, it found five proteins that, when injected into laboratory mice, generated antibodies against at least 66 of 85 group B strains, according to a 2006 study.

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Rats and mice are by far the most commonly used laboratory animals (used in more than 80% of procedures in 2000).

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The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, which distributes more than 6, 000 kinds of modified mice to labs around the world, is working on at least 200 types for the New York researchers, said the lab's Stephen Linnell.

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