Mouse models of disease are central to biomedical research in many
different fields. The course programme will cover the latest
developments in mouse experimentation with respect to the accurate
characterization of human disease and the design of novel therapeutic
approaches. To allow for relatively newcomers in the field to benefit
from the programme, and add to the training component particularly aimed
at students and young scientists in the early stage of their career,
the event will start with an introduction of the basic principles of
mouse genetics. This will be followed by an overview of various
Mutagenesis, Archiving and Phenotyping experimental strategies. In
parallel, the course will also instruct participants on the growing
usefulness of Informatics and Database resources and how to approach the
evaluation of mouse traits in a quantitative manner. All these topics
will be discussed using recent examples of disease model discovery that
have been developed and are being actively used by all members of the
faculty. With respect to the previous editions of the course, this year
the programme will include a brief introduction on possible approaches
beyond mouse-models for a more advanced disease model building.