RRSSC, Instech, and the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research to host a hands-on laboratory course on the glucose clamp technique in stress-free, conscious and freely moving mice and rats in The Netherlands.

Since its inception in the late 1970s, the glucose clamp has become the gold standard for assessing β-cell function, insulin action and glucose turnover in vivo. Over the years, the clamp technique has been adapted and modified extensively, to accommodate the vast range of model organisms being used in metabolic research, from mouse to man. However, due to the limited sizes of rodents, particularly of mice and rats, performing a clamp in these species pose a challenging technical barrier to overcome, mainly because the blood volume available for sampling is small, and because the catheters for infusion and sampling needs to be implanted surgically. Consequently, clamping requires specialized equipment and microsurgery skills in order to obtain reliable and reproducible results.

Thus, the aim of the Glucose Clamp module is to provide the participants with the necessary skills to design, execute, and analyze a glucose clamp experiment in conscious, freely moving mice and rats, taking the animal all the way from surgery to data analysis. Course participants will have ample opportunity to become familiar with the surgical techniques and experimental procedures needed to clamp their rodent species of choice. Furthermore, through lectures on isotopic tracers, experimental design considerations, and data analysis, participants will acquire the knowledge to benefit from the full potential of the glucose clamp technique. With this we hope to aid those laboratories needing to perform glucose clamps on a regular basis in implementing the usage of this technically challenging technique at their institution.

The seven day course will be held April 22 - 28, 2023 just outside Amsterdam. Space will be limited. For registration information please visit www.rrssc.eu