Swine in biomedical research: creating the building blocks of animal models.
The opportunities for utilizing swine biomedical models are immense, particularly in models that address lifestyle issues (nutrition, stress, alcohol, drugs of abuse, etc.). However, in order to fully capitalize upon the promise, there needs to be a more general recognition of these cofactors, such as nutrition, as key modulators of phenotype via genomic, epigenetic, and postgenomic mechanisms. Furthermore, increased interactions between nutrition scientists and clinical and fundamental researchers in other disciplines, including developmental biology, immunology, neuroscience, oncology, and cardiovascular and gastrointestinal physiology, are required. Closing discussions focused on the need for future conferences at more frequent intervals to support interactions between the various disciplines. This was especially critical because of the global distribution of investigators.
Schook
Lawrence
L
University of Illinois, Institute for Genomic Biology, 382 ERML, 1201 W. Gregory Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. schook@uiuc.edu
Beattie
Craig
C
Beever
Jonathan
J
Donovan
Sharon
S
Jamison
Russell
R
Zuckermann
Federico
F
Niemi
Steven
S
Rothschild
Max
M
Rutherford
Mark
M
Smith
Douglas
D
D000818:Animals; D035843:Biomedical Research; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D023421:Models, Animal; D013552:Swine