Scientific Luncheon

We are hosting a scientific luncheon titled Of Mice and Men: The Validity of Animal Models of Neurodegenerative Diseases on November 11, 2013. Space is limited, so register early.

"Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful." –George E.P. Box

How can you model neurological diseases like PD/AD/HD in mice or rats? There is no dispute that animal models can play a critical role in all areas of biomedial research and therapeutic development. However, despite the long history of disease model development utilizing mice and rats, an iterative, multi-stage process for animal model building, development and evaluation has rarely been addressed systematically, especially in the neurodegenerative disease field.

Model development requires a multidisciplinary approach. Preferably, preclinical and clinical experts should establish a set of scientific criteria based on hypotheses about brain-behavior relationships. The scientific evaluation should consist of assessing the reliability, replicability, predictive validity and relevance of the model to the disease of interest. One may apply a multiple-tiered battery of tests to elucidate the reproducibility of the results and gain insight into clinical relevance.

This forum is aimed at bringing together key representatives across academia and various industries to share perspectives and provide:

• An overview and insight on the newer, innovative and potentially more translatable assays/models being employed in neurodegenerative diseases
• Insight into the challenges and successes in utilizing rodent models to assess the underlying neurodegenerative disease biology and applications for effective therapeutic and biomarker development

Click here to register.