Why is so much medical research done with mice? And what does it mean when scientists talk about a mouse model?

As different as they appear, humans and mice are surprisingly similar under the hood. We share more than 95 percent of our genomes and get most of the same diseases, for many of the same genetic reasons. Therefore, experimental findings in mice often correlate to human biology.

In other words, a mouse model with a specific disease provides a research "stand-in" for a human patient. Jackson scientists conduct experiments in mice that would be impossible in people. Researchers worldwide use mice in the same way, and they turn to us for our expertise. In fact, we provide over 5,000 lines of genetically defined mice and a wide variety of mouse services to 19,000 laboratories around the world.

Our expertise in experimental genetics is leading to better treatments for cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular disease and many other conditions that undermine human health and longevity.

The humanized mouse

Professor Leonard D. Shultz, Ph.D., and his research team spent years engineering a “humanized” mouse, also known to colleagues as “Lenny’s mouse.”

Because its immune system has been altered, the mouse can tolerate a variety of human cells—blood, immune, cancer, etc. This allows researchers to experiment with human cells in new ways and totranslate the results much more directly to human medicine.

“This humanized mouse provides insights into living human biology that aren’t otherwise possible,” Shultz says. “The challenge was creating a mouse model with an immune system that was not so robust that it would reject human tissue and cells and not so weak that it offered the mouse insufficient protection from infection and premature death. With both a low immunity and a relatively long lifespan of more than 90 weeks, this strain allows the long-term efficacy, as well as safety, of different therapies to be determined.”

How are system genetics shaping the future of medicine? Learn more