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Mike EcclesProfessor and New Zealand Institute for Cancer Research Trust Chair in Cancer Pathology Department of Pathology University of Otago.Mike obtained his PhD in Biochemistry from Otago University in 1986, and carried out his Postdoctoral studies at Princeton University’s Lewis Thomas Laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey, USA. He returned to Otago University in 1989 to establish a group investigating genes in disrupted growth and development, and in cancer. After 10 years as a Research Fellow in the Cancer Genetics Laboratory in the Biochemistry Department, he undertook research and study leave at McGill University’s Montreal Children’s Hospital in Montreal, Canada, and he was afterwards awarded a Royal Society of NZ James Cook Research Fellowship in 2000. He then moved to the Pathology Department in 2001, as an Associate Professor. In 2005 he became a full Professor, and in 2006 he was appointed as Zealand Institute for Cancer Research Trust Chair in Cancer Pathology. Mike has published more than 170 papers, including on cancer, polycystic kidney disease and several genetic kidney diseases, such as renal-coloboma syndrome, which he first discovered is caused by PAX2 mutations. |
Polycystic kidney disease (PKD); use of large and small PKD animal models
In this presentation I outline the pros and cons of using small versus large animal models in PKD research. I give examples of the use of rodent models in PKD research, and I then talk about my journey regarding the identification and publication of a spontaneously occurring sheep model of recessive PKD in NZ, which we identified as a model of Meckel syndrome. I also briefly discuss our use of zebrafish, another small animal model system, as part of this journey.