About Moustra
Transforming mouse colony management for research facilities worldwide, proudly based in the Texas Medical Center.
Last updated: 2026-04-15
Our Mission
Moustra is dedicated to transforming how research laboratories manage their mouse colonies, allowing scientists to focus on breakthrough discoveries instead of administrative tasks. We believe that cutting-edge research shouldn't be slowed down by outdated colony management systems.
About Moustra
Founded in the heart of the Texas Medical Center, Moustra was born from the frustration of researchers spending more time on paperwork than actual research. Our founder, a scientist by training, experienced firsthand the inefficiencies of traditional colony management and created a solution that is now becoming the new standard for mouse colony management.
Moustra is a product of UpPhish LLC, a company dedicated to creating innovative software solutions for the scientific community.
Our Story
What began as an in-house solution for a single laboratory at the Texas Medical Center has grown into a comprehensive platform designed for research institutions worldwide. Our proximity to one of the world's largest medical complexes gives us direct access to the needs and challenges of modern biomedical research.
Based in Houston's renowned Texas Medical Center, we work closely with leading scientists and laboratory managers to continuously refine our platform. This unique location allows us to maintain strong partnerships with researchers who use our software daily, providing invaluable feedback for our development process.
Our Values
Scientific Integrity
Every colony record is versioned and auditable. IACUC protocol numbers, genotyping calls, and breeding events stay linked to the exact cage and animal they came from — so lab notebooks and publications trace back to source data.
User-Centered Design
Our Excel-like grid and native iOS/Android barcode scanner exist because researchers told us spreadsheets and cage-side phones are how colony work actually happens — not because a designer sketched it in a vacuum.
Continuous Improvement
We ship on a public changelog — AI migration, weaning notifications, and the gel-image analyzer all came directly from lab-manager feature requests. See /changelog for the running log.
Meet Our Co-Founder
Dongwook Yang, D.D.S., Ph.D.
Co-Founder | Translational Scientist, Baylor College of Medicine
View Baylor College of Medicine Profile →Dr. Dongwook Yang is a translational researcher at Baylor College of Medicine, pioneering work at the intersection of molecular biology, genetics, and regenerative medicine. With over a decade of hands-on experience in laboratory operations and mouse colony management, he brings both deep scientific insight and operational precision to Moustra.
Frustrated by the inefficiencies of traditional colony management systems, Dr. Yang co-founded Moustra to build a smarter, researcher-centric platform. His unique blend of bench-to-system thinking ensures that every feature of Moustra reflects the real-world needs of modern laboratories—intuitive, data-driven, and built by scientists, for scientists.
Background & Expertise
- •Postdoctoral Researcher, Baylor College of Medicine
- •Specialization: Molecular Biology and Human Genetics
- •10+ years of advanced biomedical research experience
- •Expert in mouse colony design, genotyping, and breeding optimization