Dr. Jacqueline N. Crawley, author of the First and Second Editions of What’s Wrong with My Mouse? Behavioral Phenotyping of Transgenic and Knockout Mice,continues to field calls and e-mails from molecular geneticists who ask: how do I run behavioral assays to find out what’s wrong with my mouse? Turn to What’s Wrong with My Mouse? to discover the wealth of mouse behavioral tasks and to get the guidance you need to select the best methods and necessary controls. Chapters are organized by behavioral domain, including measurements of general health, motor functions, sensory abilities, learning and memory, feeding and drinking, reproductive, social, emotional, and reward behaviors in mutant mice. Throughout the chapters, new behavioral tasks and new research discoveries have been added, bringing the Second Edition up to date with the latest science. In addition, the Second Edition includes two new chapters: "Neurodevelopment and Neurodegeneration" discusses mouse behavioral tasks relevant to neurodevelopmental diseases, such as mental retardation and autism, and to neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimers, Parkinsons, Huntingtons, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. "Putting It All Together" recommends strategies for optimizing a battery of behavioral phenotyping tests to address your specific hypotheses about gene functions. The final chapter, "The Next Generation," examines new and emerging technologies. Throughout the book, the use of behavioral testing equipment is illustrated with photographs, diagrams, and representative data. Examples of behavioral tasks successfully applied to transgenic and knockout mouse models are provided, as well as references to the primary literature and step-by-step methods protocols. These features, along with a comprehensive index, listings of database and vendor websites, and an extensive list of references, make this book a valuable and practical resource for students and researchers.

Recent years have seen spectacular advances in the field of circadian biology. These have attracted the interest of researchers in many fields, including endocrinology, neurosciences, cancer, and behavior. By integrating a circadian view within the fields of endocrinology and metabolism, researchers will be able to reveal many, yet-unsuspected aspects of how organisms cope with changes in the environment and subsequent control of homeostasis. This field is opening new avenues in our understanding of metabolism and endocrinology. A panel of the most distinguished investigators in the field gathered together to discuss the present state and the future of the field. The editors trust that this volume will be of use to those colleagues who will be picking up the challenge to unravel how the circadian clock can be targeted for the future development of specific pharmacological strategies toward a number of pathologies.

Following the completion of the mouse and human genome sequences, a major challengeisthefunctionalcharacterizationofeverymammaliangeneandthedeciph- ing of their molecular interaction network. The mouse offers many advantages for the use of genetics to study human biology and disease, unmatched among other m- mals. Its development, body plan, physiology, behavior, and diseases have much in common, based on the fact that 99% of the human genes have a mouse ortholog. The investigation of gene function using mouse models is based on many years of tech- logical development. In the two decades since gene targeting in murine embryonic stem (ES) cells was first described by Mario Capecchi and colleagues, more than 3000 predesigned mouse mutants have been developed. To date, a variety of mouse mutagenesis techniques, either gene- or phenotype-driven, are used as systematic approaches. The availability of the genome sequence supports gene-driven approaches such as gene-trap and targeted mutagenesis in ES cells, allowing efficient and precise gene disruption. In combination with the use of site-specific DNA recombinases, in particular the Cre/loxP system, gene disruptioncan be directed to specific cell types in conditionalmousemutants. Furthermore,chemicalandtransposonmutagenesisofthe mouse genome enables us to perform phenotype-driven screens for the unbiased identification of phenotype–genotype correlations involved in models of human d- ease. Over the next several years, the mouse genome will be systematically altered, and the techniques for achieving predesigned manipulations will be constantly developed further and improved. The second edition of Gene Knockout Protocols brings together distinguished c- tributorswithextensiveexperienceinthegenetargetingandmousegeneticsfields.

This timely volume provides a comprehensive overview of glucocorticoids and their role in regulating many aspects of physiology and their use in the treatment of disease. The book is broken into four sections that begin by giving a general introduction to glucocorticoids and a brief history of the field. The second section will discuss the effects of glucocorticoids on metabolism, while the third section will cover the effects of glucocorticoids on key tissues. The final section will discuss general topics, such as animal models in glucocorticoid research and clinical implications of glucocorticoid research. Featuring chapters from leaders in the field, this volume will be of interest to both researchers and clinicians.

Marten Hofker and Jan van Deursen have assembled a multidisciplinary collection of readily reproducible methods for working with mice, and particularlyfor generating mouse models that will enable us to better understand gene function. Described in step-by-step detail by highly experienced investigators, these proven techniques include new methods for conditional, induced knockout, and transgenic mice, as well as for working with mice in such important research areas as immunology, cancer, and atherosclerosis. Such alternative strategies as random mutagenesis and viral gene transduction for studying gene function in the mouse are also presented.

Using the most well-studied behavioral analyses of animal subjects to promote a better understanding of the effects of disease and the effects of new therapeutic treatments on human cognition, Methods of Behavior Analysis in Neuroscience provides a reference manual for molecular and cellular research scientists in both academia and the pharmaceutic