14 Impact of Genomics on Research in the Rat

Abstract

IMPORTANCE OF THE RAT IN BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH
The dominant power of the laboratory rat is the biological characterization of the >500 strains (http://rgd.mcw.edu/strains/), most of which were developed as models for complex, common diseases. However, while the rat is primarily known as a “physiological” model, there has been a steady increase in the use of the rat for genomic and genetic studies over the last 14 years. Given the need to annotate the human genome with function, linking the rat into this process via its own genome project is a logical and necessary requirement for accelerating improvements in health care, as virtually every drug is tested in the rat before humans.

Since 1966, there have been more than 1 million publications using the rat, with nearly 37,000 published annually for the last eight years. While the vast majority of rat papers remain mechanistic in nature, there are increasing numbers of genetic studies. From 1966, when PubMed started its coverage of the literature, there were 9657 genetic papers that include rat. Since 1991, when the first quantitative trait locus (QTL) was mapped in the rat (Hilbert et al. 1991; Jacob et al. 1991), there have been 26,064 papers published with rat genetics as a component. A CRISP search of the National Institute’s funded grants (http://crisp.cit.nih.gov/) identified 41 currently funded grants on topics such as alcohol, hypertension, cancer, and autoimmune disease. There have been 406 grants funded relating to rat genetics since 1991. Given that the publication and funding rates in the...