Saturday, May 17, 2025
5/17/2025
Workshop on the Pathology of Mouse Models for Human Disease - This proposal is a request for a 4-year continuation of NIH Support for a “Workshop on the Pathology of Mouse Models for Human Disease”. For 20 years, this workshop was sponsored by The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. We now plan to hold this workshop at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. The previous PI, Dr. John Sundberg, is a key person on this grant and will remain on the organizing committee until the course has successfully transitioned to St. Jude. The focus of the workshop will continue to be the mouse as a biomedical research model. The mouse is heavily utilized as a model of human diseases, and there are increasing demands on pathologists to provide clinically relevant, quantitative morphological and molecular data on mouse models. The primary goal of this workshop is to train the next generation of pathologists (veterinary and medical) and biomedical researchers on what pathologists can contribute to the design and evaluation of experiments that use mice to model human diseases. Access to well-trained pathologists with specialization in the mouse as a research model is essential given the accelerated production of novel mutant mouse models, as well as for preclinical safety and efficacy studies. Existing pathology residency programs at Veterinary and Medical schools provide little to no training on the mouse since their focus is on companion/farm animals and humans, respectively. Mouse-specific pathology training is essential because misinterpretation of species-specific anatomical features and background lesions is unfortunately far too common in the scientific literature, and this erroneous data negatively impacts subsequent biomedical research. The long-term objectives are two-fold: 1) to enhance the ability of participants to correctly interpret spontaneous and experimentally induced lesions in mice and 2) to demonstrate how pathologists can effectively apply new technologies to enhance the value of research studies. The relatively small size of the workshop is intended to facilitate faculty-attendee interactions and foster the development of professional relationships and networks. The workshop program will continue to be built around a core group of experienced comparative pathologists who specialize in mouse model development at several research institutions across the United States. Additional training will be provided by invited experts, as well as onsite St. Jude researchers (PhD and MD). Specific fields of study to be covered include cancer biology, cellular and gene therapies, infectious disease pathogenesis and treatment, immunology, neurodegenerative diseases, and other organ specific abnormalities. The workshop will also include training in and hands-on exposure to the application of technologies that comparative pathologists use to investigate disease pathogenesis in tissues (e.g., multiplex labeling and image acquisition, AI-assisted image analysis, and tissue-based spatial biology applications). Given the increasing need for quantitative analysis of lesions in whole slide images, we are including 8 hours of hands-on bioimage analysis training targeted at scientists in basic research who want to analyze microscopy data, but do not have a background in programming or image analysis. This training will be delivered in person. The program will include time for 9 participants to present their own research in platform presentations selected from submitted abstracts.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).