COMPMED 87Q: Laboratory Mouse in Biomedical Research
General Education Requirements
Please note, because this seminar involves labs, enrollment is limited to 12 students.
Course Description
What is a nude mouse and why is it used in cancer research? Why is it that my mouse pups have a different coat color than their parents? What is a knockout mouse? Answers to these questions and more are in this introduction to the laboratory mouse, one of the most widely used models in biomedical research. We will explore the natural history and origin of the laboratory mouse; the ethics and regulations on the use of mice in research; the characteristics and nomenclature of commonly used mouse strains; the anatomy, physiology, and husbandry of mice; common mouse diseases and their effects on research; mouse coat color genetics and its relevance to human diseases; immunodeficient mouse models and their uses in research; and the technology for genetically engineering mice (e.g., transgenic mice). Hands-on laboratories will include mouse handling and biomethodology, necropsy and tissue sampling and anesthesia and surgery. Each student is expected to read research papers that use the mouse as a research model and give a presentation on a topic of their choice. Students interested in biomedical research and human or veterinary medicine will benefit from this seminar.
Meet the Instructor: Claude Nagamine
Claude Nagamine is an associate professor in the Department of Comparative Medicine, where his duties include veterinary service, research, and teaching. He joined the Stanford faculty in 2008 and is the director of Rodent Services and the director of the Rodent Health Surveillance Program. Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, he obtained his B.S. at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, his M.A. and Ph.D. at UC Davis, and his DVM at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He has worked at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the Pasteur Institute in Paris, and the University of California, San Francisco. Prior to entering veterinary school in 2000, he was an assistant professor of cell biology at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He completed a laboratory animal medicine residency at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2007 and became a diplomate of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine in 2008. His research interests include the molecular genetics of mammalian sex determination and mouse infectious diseases. He is collaborating with several investigators on mouse models to understand the pathogenesis of human diseases caused by dengue virus, zika virus, and enteroviruses.
