CHDI
A Field Guide to Working with Mouse Models of Huntington’s Disease
Many different mouse models of Huntington’s disease are now available and the choice of which model(s) to use is a critical consideration that depends greatly on your particular research focus. Equally, good husbandry to breed and rear mouse colonies under rigorous quality-controlled conditions can ensure genetic integrity and the highest quality resources for HD research, which is integral to generating robust and reproducible results that can be compared across laboratories.
CHDI, The Jackson Laboratory, and PsychoGenics, Inc. have compiled A Field Guide to Working with Mouse Models of Huntington’s Disease that brings together current understanding of many of the established and emerging HD mouse models and their known advantages, disadvantages, peculiarities and pitfalls, and proposes standardized best practices to optimize their use in preclinical research and development. In particular, the manual emphasizes the importance of understanding how different models reflect disease phenotypes and mechanisms; the ‘best model’ to use will depend on the question being addressed. The goal is to improve the translation of results to the clinic and accelerate the pace of HD therapeutic research.
Topics covered include:
- Common and emerging mouse models for Huntington’s disease research
- Quality control criteria and recommended best practices for using HD mouse models
- Model peculiarities, pitfalls, and considerations
- Best practices for using HD mouse models to test compound efficacy
You can download a copy here. We intend this field guide to be a collective HD community resource that will be updated periodically, so we welcome and encourage feedback from all HD researchers to improve and broaden content. Please contact CHDI at
A webinar series to discuss the field guide will be held on Thursday March 20th 2014 at 1pm EDT*, you can sign up here.
Presenters:
- Liliana Menalled, Ph.D., PsychoGenics, Inc.
- David Howland, Ph.D., CHDI Foundation
- Cathleen Lutz, Ph.D., The Jackson Laboratory
Moderator:
- Charles Miller, Ph.D., The Jackson Laboratory
* To convert times and dates to your location use a Time Zone Map website such as this one (ET in the US is the same as New York City, New York).
Important note: Webinar attendance is assured only for participants who register at least 1 hour prior to scheduled start time