rats

Despite what our name might imply, the Rat Genome Database contains much more than just genomic and genetic data for the rat. This video will give you an overview of the RGD Phenotypes and Models portal—a rich resource of information on topics including animal husbandry, identifying what rat strains are good models for certain human diseases, and normal physiological measurements for a variety of rat strains.

Reducing waste gas exposure produced by induction chambers

Diana Woodruff-Pak (Temple University, Philadelphia, PA) used cholesterol-fed rabbits as a model of AD for evaluation of currently available and potential anti-Alzheimer drugs. These animals developed typical Alzheimer pathology, including behavioral changes and deposition of ß-amyloid and even tau. Galantamine and donepezil partially protected animals from Alzheimer symptomatology.

Michael Rogawski (University of California, Davis) summarizes his research on the antiepileptic activity of neurosteroids (e.g. ganaxolone, allopregnanolone). They are allosteric modulators of GABAA receptors and are active in many models of epilepsy. They are expected, however, to be most effective in catamenial epilepsy, infantile spasms or adult partial seizures. National Institutes of Health (NIH) is currently sponsoring a clinical trial of progesterone (precursor of allopregnanolone)...

J. Kocsis, PhD. - The current approaches to the therapy of multiple sclerosis are reviewed by J. Kocsis (Yale University). His research emphasizes remyelination as an approach to the therapy of multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury.

Gregory Rose from PharmExperts.com interviews J. Buccafusco (Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA) about his development of new anti-Altzheimer drugs, designed to act by multiple mechanisms to improve congnition. Desensitization of nicotinic receptors is one of the novel approaches proposed by Buccafusco. Three of his compounds are currently in advanced preclinical evaluation.

Protein aggregation is a process in which identical proteins self-associate into imperfectly ordered macroscopic entities. Such aggregates are generally classified as amorphous, lacking any long-range order, or highly ordered fibrils. Protein fibrils can be composed of native globular molecules, such as the hemoglobin molecules in sickle-cell fibrils, or can be reorganized β-sheet–rich aggregates, termed amyloid-like fibrils. Amyloid fibrils are associated with several...

The rat genome comes to life through the use of the Gviewer tool. This video will show you how to use this helpful tool within the RGD website at http://rgd.mcw.edu/. Genes, QTLs, and species syntenies of interest can all be visualized with ease as the Gviewer zooms in and navigates through the rat genome with a few clicks. See our website at http://rgd.mcw.edu/ for more tools for rat researchers.

Who knew you could find disease genes without even stepping into the laboratory? This video provides a tutorial on how to utilize the Disease Portals on the Rat Genome Database website at http://rgd.mcw.edu/wg/portals . These portals allow you to search for disease, phenotype, biological process, and pathway specific rat, mouse, and human genes and data. See our RGD website at http://rgd.mcw.edu for more information and tools for researchers...

Knockouts are not just for Mice anymore. Aron Geurts and Howard Jacob from the Medical College of Wisconsin talk about their plans for creating transgenic rats using the Sleeping beauty transposon. Coming out of work pioneered by Colin Bishop's lab, Geurts and Jacob describe how the Sleeping Beauty system can be used to make transgenic rats and their plans to make the phenotype data from these rats available via the MCW PGA website (http://pga.mcw.edu) and the strains themselves accessible...