German Diabetes Mouse Clinic
The mouse has been an important model organism in biomedical research for many decades. Despite the considerable difference in size, humans and mice are remarkably similar with regard to body function. With the German Diabetes Mouse Clinic, an outstanding research facility has been created at Helmholtz Zentrum München. Here diabetic mice are systematically investigated at different stations – like the stations in a hospital – in order to identify as many characteristics of the body as possible. This is called phenotyping. At the same time, the researchers also analyze the genes of the mice. They thus succeed in establishing an association between a disturbed glucose metabolism and specific gene mutations.