Animal Models for High-Throughput Screening of Translational Research

Dear Colleagues,

The purpose of this Special Issue is to provide a forum to discuss emerging whole animal and organoid platforms for the screening of chemical libraries for translational and basic science research applications and toxicological risk assessment. To date, such screening assays often rely on mammalian cell culture systems to interrogate specific biological networks and molecular interactions. While powerful, there are inherent limitations to such models due to the enormous complexity of multicellular organisms, which could contribute to failures of the many chemical ‘hits’ identified in such screens to achieve biological efficacy in animal models.

To address these limitations, fruit fly, nematode, zebrafish, and organoid models are gaining momentum as screening platforms. Due to the principles of conserved molecular structures and functions and/or their experimental tractability, an exciting new vista in screening platforms is emerging that promises to facilitate the profiling of chemical libraries for a range of therapeutic indications and in investigating potential toxicological signatures. In this Special Issue, we will place a special focus on the development and application of whole animal and organoid models for screening. We seek to highlight fundamental gaps in the scientific knowledge base that need to be bridged to develop more effective whole animal and organoid screening platforms in the future. We welcome the submission of research and review articles that are relevant to the scope of this issue.

Dr. Joseph G. Hacia
Dr. Nancy Braverman
Guest Editors

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