Place: Moriwaki Hall, RIKEN BioResource Center, Tsukuba, Japan
Period: July 25 - 27, 2016

Model Animal Research Center (MARC), Nanjing University, China (Director: Dr. Zhongzhou Yang) and RIKEN BioResource Center (BRC), Japan (Director: Dr. Yuichi Obata) have been co-organizing short educational programs focusing on experimental technologies using mice for young scientists. RIKEN BRC hosted "the 1st International Short Summer Course of the Mouse" from Aug 27 to Aug 29, 2012 in Tsukuba, Japan. Thereafter, MARC and RIKEN BRC alternately hosted the summer course every year. This summer, RIKEN BRC hosted the 5th program renamed as "Mouse Resource Workshop" from July 25 to July 27, 2016 in Tsukuba, Japan.

Number of students: 31 from 12 countries (8 Chinese, 6 Indians, 3 Japanese, 2 Korean, 2 Philippinos, 2 Spaniards, 2 French, 2 Vietnamese, 1 Italian, 1 Taiwanese, 1 Bangladeshi, and 1 Brazilian).
Number of Keynote speakers: 4 from Japan
Number of lecturers: 5 from China, 2 from Korea and 9 from Japan
Number of Luncheon speakers: 3 from Japan

■Keynote speakers:

Dr. Atsushi Miyawaki: RIKEN Brain Science Institute & RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics
Drs. Satoru Takahashi and Yoshihiro Miwa: University of Tsukuba
Dr. Hideki Enomoto: Kobe University

■Lecturers:

<China>
Dr. Xiaohui Wu: Fudan University
Dr. Ying Xu: Soochow University
Drs. Chaojun Li, Zhongzhou Yang, and Jing Zhao: MARC, Nanjing University

<Korea>
Drs. Ho Young Lee and Je Kyung Seong: Seoul National University

<Japan>
Drs. Kuniya Abe, Atsushi Yoshiki, Yukio Nakamura, Atsuo Ogura, Shigeharu Wakana, Yoichi Gondo, Hiroshi Masuya, Masaru Tamura, and Shinya Ayabe: RIKEN BRC

■Luncheon seminar speakers:

Dr. Akira Saito: Olympus Corporation
Dr. Akira Sato: Carl Zeiss Microscopy Co., Ltd.
Mr. Shintaro Tanaka: Leica Microsystems K. K.

The program under the main theme "Biological Imaging of Disease models" consisted of the following 6 sessions with 15 lectures,
and 4 Keynote lectures on the Days 1 and 2:
*program 

1. Basic knowledge for mouse research resources
2. Genomics and imaging development and disease
3. Mouse models for human diseases
4. Novel technologies and resources
5. Phenotyping disease models and data sharing
6. To conquer human diseases

In the Open Discussion session, there were many active questions and answers as well as informative exchange and discussion among participants and lecturers.
Among enthusiastic students, Ms. Sakura Eri Maezono, Mr. Lalhaba Oinam, and Mr. Liang Xu, who were most actively involved in many discussions, were given "Best discussant award." In addition, Ms. Flore Castellan was honored with "Best Poster Award." All the students were awarded "Certificate for Participation" by Drs. Yang and Obata.

On Day 3, two practical trainings, two demonstrations, three laboratory tours, and one optional training were offered as listed below. The students took courses of their choices.

Practical training
1. Modified SHIRPA (4 participants)
2. Bio Informatics (11 participants)

Demonstration
1. Embryo manipulation (11 participants)
2. Fluorescent imaging (10 participants)

Laboratory tour
1. Cell Bank (4 participants)
2. Animal Facility (13 participants)
3. Japan Mouse Clinic (11 participants)

Optional training
1. Carl Zeiss optional practical training for LSM with users' samples (5 participants)

The next workshop will be co-organized by RIKEN BRC, MARC, Nanjing University and Seoul National University. Seoul National University kindly offered to host the 6th workshop in August, 2017 in Incheon, Korea.

This workshop was held as a part of the RIKEN Symposium Series.

We thank all the following companies which agreed with the purpose of this workshop and made contributions:
CHARLES RIVER LABORATORIES JAPAN, INC.
TOKYO BUSINESS SERVICE CO.,LTD.
Olympus Corporation
Carl Zeiss Microscopy Co., Ltd.
Leica Microsystems K. K.
Yodosha Company Limited
Tecniplast Japan Co., Ltd.
TOWA SCIENTIFIC Co., Ltd.
(in random order)

Group Photo
Dr. Yang, Nanjing University MARC and Dr. Obata, Director of RIKEN BRC awarding certificate to a participant

*More photos here.