Join Taconic Biosciences for this on-demand virtual workshop which brought together preclinical scientists from industry and academia to discuss Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) mouse modeling.

Download now to explore the challenges and opportunities of modeling IBD in mice. Leaders from the field present on key topics, including the role of the microbiome in IBD, how humanized immune system mice are used as IBD models, and best practices for using mouse models in drug discovery.

Enjoy the workshop at your own pace, each presentation is provided via its own unique link.

Meeting Report

Included in this download is an in-depth meeting report. The report summarizes the conversations that took place during the live event about the promising opportunities to develop mouse models for IBD research. The overall theme across presentations is that there is not one single model that captures every aspect of colitis and IBD in humans. Each model has its strengths and weaknesses and does an adequate job of displaying one or more mechanisms seen in human IBD.

Presentations

Session 1: Introduction

IBD Modeling and Solutions
Presented by Philip Dubé, PhD, Associate Director, Global Application Sciences, Taconic Biosciences

Session 2: Evolving Approaches to IBD

Mouse Models of IBD – a Microbiome Perspective
Presented by Benoit Chassaing, PhD, Assistant Professor, Inserm

Lymphocyte Sub-specialization in the Small Intestine: Mechanisms, Implications for IBD Therapy and Utility of Preclinical IBD Animal Models
Presented by Mark Sundrud, PhD, Associate Professor of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute

Humanized Mice for IBD Research
Presented by Jeremy Goettel, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Session 3: Preclinical Models in Government/Regulatory and Industry

Comparing in vivo and Histopathological Endpoints in the T-cell Transfer and Spontaneous Mouse Models of IBD
Presented by Julie White, DVM, Dipl. ACVP, Comparative Pathologist and Robert O'Connell, VP of Research, Bolder Biopath, Inc.

The Use of Mouse IBD Models in Drug Discovery
Presented by Philip Smith, PhD, Discovery Leader Gastro-Immunology Research, Roche Holding AG

The Role of Gut Microbiota in Autoimmune Diseases: Focus on Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)
Presented by Odile Engel, PhD, MD, Senior Staff Fellow, Office of Biotechnology Products, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

About the Speakers

Dr. Philip Dubé is a Senior Scientist with Taconic Biosciences focusing on microbiome and immunology applications in mouse research models. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and completed postdoctoral fellowships in inflammatory bowel disease research at Vanderbilt University and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Philip’s areas of expertise include mouse models for inflammatory and metabolic diseases, oncology, and immuno-oncology.

Dr. Courtney Ferrebee is a Field Applications Scientist for Taconic Biosciences. She earned her PhD from Wake Forest University in Molecular Medicine and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Emory Vaccine Center. Her research background and areas of expertise include wound care medical device development, infectious diseases and vaccine immunology, and intestinal biology and bile acid metabolism.

Robert O’Connell is the Vice President of Research, Inflammatory Bowel Disease at Bolder BioPATH Inc., a preclinical pharmacology and pathology contract research organization based in Boulder, Colorado. Robert has extensive experience in preclinical drug efficacy models of Inflammatory bowel diseases including immunological, chemically induced and spontaneous IBD. He holds a B.Sc. in Animal Science and Nutrition from North Carolina State University, and an MBA from Colorado State University.

Dr. Julie White is a Comparative Pathologist at Bolder Biopath in Boulder Colorado. She received her veterinary degree from Louisiana State University and training in anatomic pathology from Angell Memorial Animal Hospital and Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine. She has been a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists since 2003. Her areas of interest include inflammatory bowel disease and its relationship to the microbiome, cancer immunotherapy, and mouse models of prostate cancer, to name a few.

Dr. Mark Sundrud is an Associate Professor of Immunology and Microbiology at The Scripps Research Institute. He earned his PhD from Vanderbilt Medical Center and completed his postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School. Afterwards, he served as the Head of Target Discovery at Tempero pharmaceuticals, where he oversaw the company's early biology research programs that aimed to define new and targetable mechanisms underlying T cell-mediated inflammation. Dr. Sundrud’s research is focused on the identification and regulation of pro-inflammatory T cell subsets that are involved in the development and persistence of chronic inflammatory disorders. The laboratory integrates the use of clinical human tissue samples, primary T cell culture techniques, mouse models of autoimmunity, and molecular biology and biochemistry to forge new insight into the development and pathogenesis of inflammation. The lab is particularly interested in metabolic and stress response pathways that control T cell development and function. Areas of expertise include molecular and cellular immunology, flow cytometry, genome- and sub-genome-wide transcriptional profiling, in vivo models of inflammation, cell signalling and cell biology, transcriptional regulation.

Dr. Jeremy Goettel is the Assistant Professor of Medicine and Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Goettel earned his PhD at Vanderbilt University in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology where he worked on intestinal epithelial cell signaling downstream of the TNF receptor. He then completed his postdoctoral training in mucosal immunology at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital. There he focused on mechanisms of intestinal immune homeostasis and cross-regulation of the host immune system with the intestinal microbiome. In pursuit of a translational platform in which to validate in vivo murine models, Dr. Goettel has developed several humanized mouse strains to facilitate investigations into the role of IL23R signaling and inflammation in IBD and to study human immunobiology and assess novel therapeutics for treating IBD. His lab is interested in understanding the mechanisms regulating intestinal immunity and what leads to dysregulation and disease as well as how gut microbes shape the mucosal immune system. Areas of expertise include humanized IBD models, mechanisms regulating intestinal immunity, and IL23 signaling.

Dr. Philip Smith is the Discovery Leader for Gastro-Immunology research at Roche Holding AG. He earned his PhD from Cambridge University. He then completed post-doctoral training in immune pathway modulation by parasites and the identification of pathogen derived molecules to identify novel therapeutic targets for immune mediated diseases at Trinity College Dublin. Afterwards, he joined Novartis Gastro-Intestinal Disease Area and took on numerous roles including in vivo pharmacology lab head and project leader for LMW and biologic drug discovery projects for IBD and other inflammatory diseases. After moving to the Autoimmune, Transplantation and Inflammation diseases area in Basel, he designed and implemented the IBD strategy for Novartis and led the IBD research group. After moving to Roche he continues to lead IBD discovery research. His current research focus is mucosal immunology and pathophysiology of IBD. Areas of expertise include in vivo pharmacology and developing colitis models for drug discovery.

Dr. Odile Engel is the Senior Staff Fellow at the US Food and Drug Administration. She attended medical school in France at Broussais-Hotel-Dieu hospital (Paris VI University/Sorbonne), and was clinically trained at Saint-Antoine hospital in rheumatology. She graduated a master’s degree from Lariboisiere hospital in bio-engineering and biomechanics in 2001, then a PhD program in physiology and pathophysiology in 2007 at Pierre and Marie Curie University, working on auto-immune diseases and inflammation, along two certificates from Institut Pasteur (virology and innate immunity). She moved to the U.S. for a post-doctoral fellowship at NIAMS, NIH then moved from the Cartilage Biology and Orthopedic Branch to the immune-regulation section, auto-immunity branch to work on auto-immune diseases. She joined the FDA in 2015 and has focused her work on microbiome/immunology/biologics use. She authored more than 30 publications in peer review journals so far and numerous presentations and posters (See Odile Gabay).

Dr. Benoit Chassaing is an Assistant professor at INSERM with affiliations in the Neuroscience Institute and Institute For Biomedical Sciences. He earned his PhD in microbiology at the University of Clermont-Ferrand in France and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Georgia State University where he researched mucosal immunology and the intestinal microbiome. His lab’s research is focused on understanding how environmental factors are involved in shaping the microbiome with particular focus on anxiety, intestinal inflammation, and colonic carcinogenesis. Areas of expertise include inflammation, intestinal microbiome, and inflammatory bowel disease.