Dr. Kristin Eden presented at the 56th annual AAVLD/USAHA conference

Dr. Kristin Eden of NIMML recently attended the 56th annual AAVLD/USAHA conference in San Diego, California from October 17-23, 2013. Dr. Eden presented her case series entitled “Congenital Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa in Sprague Dawley Rats” which had been awarded the ACVP/AAVLD Diagnostic Pathology Travel Award in December of 2012, providing funding for travel to AAVLD. The case series consisted of a rare genetic skin disease that was detected within the breeding colony of rats at the laboratory animal facilities at Texas A&M. After necropsy, histology, and electron microscopy, the disease was identified as subtype of epidermolysis bullosa. The disease was successfully reproduced several times using phenotypically unaffacted littermates, confirming a genetic origin. Dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa has been sporadically described in several species, but has until now not been seen to occur naturally in the laboratory rat; research of this disease has been limited to transgenic animals. Slides are available here as well as the posterpresented at ACVP in December of 2012 in Seattle, Washington.

About NIMML

The NIMML Institute is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit public charity foundation focused on a transdisciplinary, team-science approach to precision medicine at the interface of immunology, inflammation, and metabolism. The NIMML Institute team has led numerous large-scale transdisciplinary projects and is dedicated to solving important societal problems by combining the expertise of immunologists, computational biologists, toxicologists, modelers, translational researchers, and molecular biologists. The Institute is headquartered in Blacksburg, VA. For more information, please visit www.nimml.org or contact pio@nimml.org.