When Chris King, head of the University of Georgia’s Animal Care and Use Program, first informs you that “mouse populations are going up five, ten, even twenty percent in research institutions across the country,” your first reaction may not be unmitigated joy. Instead, you might wonder why this guy is so excited that the little pests are multiplying in the walls of academia, and how you can keep them out of your office.

King is talking not about uninvited intruders, however, but special strains of mice involved in scientific studies on everything from third-world plagues of infectious diseases to obesity and depression here at home. Researchers often use mice as “models” to predict how treatments will affect a target disease and host. To determine efficacy and any adverse reactions before testing may proceed on larger animals or humans, and to do so in a reasonable time, scientists need an organism that not only can carry human genes but also matures quickly and reproduces often. Researchers also need models that provide — through observation — clues to the basic biological functions of human and animal health.

“Mouse colonies fill these needs perfectly,” said King, “and they’re relatively easy to maintain and care for in a laboratory setting. All over the country, the mouse is driving achievement and innovation in biomedical research.” Much the same can be said for the mouse’s cousin, the rat.

The Rodent Barrier Facility at the UGA’s new Paul D. Coverdell Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences can house as many as 40,000 mice and rats just steps away from their researchers. In the basement of the center, scientists work with their rodents within an “exquisitely” designed system that keeps the lab environment free of outside influences that might compromise experiments, King said.

“My human subjects live in Kenya,” said Dan Colley, a UGA professor who studies the immune system as part of an effort to understand why some people react violently to certain infections, common in developing countries, while others seem to regulate their responses. “By working closely with mouse models here, I can foresee potential problems and complications and will be more likely to produce positive results in the final stages of human investigation.” Colley is director of the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases (CTEGD) and is also a member of the Biomedical Health Sciences Institute (BHSI), both represented at Coverdell.

Rodents are not just highly effective models for human physical health, though; they can also be used in mental-health and social research. Gaylen Edwards, also a member of BHSI and professor of veterinary physiology and pharmacology, uses mice and rats to determine the effects of neural pathways in the human brain on depression and obesity.

“Like people, rodents are social animals,” he said. “For instance, living with an aggressive roommate can result in increased anxiety in rats.” Scientists have observed similar behaviors in people and determined that they are caused by specific proteins in the brain that produce responses that may include anxiety-related behaviors like increased food intake. The surplus energy from this behavior may result in excess fat and weight gain. Studies such as this can contribute to the development of anti-depression and obesity treatments.

For more information contact Tom Adams at tadams@engr.uga.edu or K.C. Das at kdas@engr.uga.edu.