Forschung

The research focus of our department

Due to the great consistency of the human and mouse genome as well as the similarities in embryonic development, physiology and biochemistry, the mouse is the model organism for the elucidation of disease-relevant genes in biomedical research. The analysis of genetically modified mouse models allows conclusions regarding the function of individual genes in cells, in isolated organs and in the whole organism. Therefore, the health status of mice is very important for this phenotypic analysis since infections can mask the changes induced by gene modification or it makes the interpretation of the findings difficult. Although infections with viruses, bacteria and parasites are often latent and do not produce obvious clinical symptoms, they can have a significant impact on the results of animal experiments.