A specific biotechnology of the rabbit is emerging. The scientific community which uses rabbits as experimental animals or as tool to produce biotech products as well as those involved in breeding are more and more invited to focus their effort on this species. The rabbit is phylogenetically closer to primates than are rodents and is large enough to permit non-lethal monitoring of physiological changes. The rabbit as a model in early development biology is more representative for most mammalian embryos than mouse, that has very specific properties at thoses stages. For example, gastrulation  - one of the most important developmental switchpoints for pre- and postnatal development – of the rabbit blastocyst closely resembles that of the human. Novel findings in embryonic stem cell and induced pluripotent cell establishment are adapted to rabbit, along with the recent transgenic technologies opening up new horizons for researchers. The complete rabbit genome sequencing is about to be achieved. Classical uses of the rabbit include polyclonal antibody production, biomedical testing and teratogenicity testing of pharmaceutical compounds. Beyond that rabbit is the traditional model for the study of lipoproteins and atherosclerosis. The lipid metabolism of rabbit is similar to that of humans and a number of spontaneous and transgenic rabbit models have been studied. The arising obese rabbit model may become highly relevant for research on human insulin resistance, obesity and lipid metabolism abnormalities. Development of novel pharmacological therapies for cardiac hypertrophy, fibrosis, cardiac dysfunction and inborn arrhythmias are based on the relevant transgenic rabbit models. Transgenic rabbits have been found to be suitable bioreactors for the production of pharmaceutical proteins filling an important niche between the laboratory mouse and larger farm mammals.

The mission of this biannual meeting to give an overview of the most recent results on the field rabbit genomic, stem cell, models of human diseases and biotechnology methods confronting the different approaches developed independently in different academic and industrial laboratories in the world. This meeting will be the 4^th International Rabbit Biotechnology Meeting.