Workshop report: The medaka model for comparative assessment of human disease mechanisms

Results of recent studies showing the utility of medaka as a model of various human disease states were presented at the 7th Aquatic Models of Human Disease Conference (December 13-18, 2014, Austin, TX). This conference brought together many of the most highly regarded national and international scientists that employ the medaka model in their investigations. To take advantage of this opportunity, a cohort of established medaka researchers were asked to stay an extra day and represent the medaka scientific community in a workshop entitled “The Medaka Model for Comparative Assessment of Human Disease Mechanisms.”The central purpose of this medaka workshop was to assess current use and project the future resource needs of the American medaka research community. The workshop sought to spur discussions of issues that would promote more informative comparative disease model studies. Finally, workshop attendees met together to propose, discuss, and agree on recommendations regarding the most effective research resources needed to enable US scientists to perform experiments leading to impacting experimental results that directly translate to human disease.Consistent with this central purpose, the workshop was divided into two sessions of invited speakers having expertise and experience in the session topics. The workshop hosted 20 scientific participants (Appendices 1 and 2), and of these, nine scientists presented formal talks.Here, we present a summary report stemming from workshop presentations and subsequent round table discussions and forward recommendations from this group that we believe represent views of the overall medaka research community.