Animal models of disease and injury: a new in vivo based module for 2nd year students at King’s College London

Lawrence Moon, Aileen King. King’s College, London, United Kingdom.

“Animal models of disease and injury” is a new course for 2nd year undergraduate students at King’s College, London. It aims to give students an understanding of in vivo research and provide hands-on in vivo experience prior to a year in industry or final year projects. The course covers lectures in animal models of various diseases, workshops in statistics and experimental design, and in ethics and the 3Rs, and in vivo practicals.

In the first year of the course 24 places were offered. 12 students were accepted on to the course based on first year results and a personal statement indicating why they were interested in doing the course. Seven of these students studied pharmacology, two studied pharmacology & molecular genetics and three studied biomedical sciences.

Students did their Home Office licence training the week before term started in September, allowing personal Home Office licences to be obtained before the course started in January. A teaching project licence was already in place. Four in vivo practicals were run during the course, two using mice and two using rats. Students wrote reports on each of the practicals in the format of a scientific article. In addition, an experimental design workshop was held where students wrote a report justifying the use of animals in the style of an ethics review application. The course is assessed on these five reports (50% of final mark) and on multiple choice questions in an end-of-year exam (50% of final mark).

After completing this course, three students will do an extramural year which will include in vivo work (25% of the students). 50% of the students chose to do a final year project and all these students included an in vivo project as one of their four preferred projects. Some of these students have also opted to do an in vivo summer project.

In summary, by the end of the course, 42% of the students had committed to projects involving their Home Office licence and depending on final year project allocations, up to 75% of students will use their Home Office licences within a year.