Thinking outside the mouse: emerging vertebrate models in biomedicine

The 2025 EMBO Workshop ‘Beyond the standard: Unconventional vertebrate models in biomedicine’ took place in Edinburgh, UK, in June 2025, and gathered a diverse group of researchers, veterinarians and animal technicians to explore the biological insights that can be unlocked from studying diverse, non-traditional vertebrates. This second iteration of the workshop focused on stem cells and regeneration, reproductive biology, immunology, ageing, and the latest technological advances and ongoing challenges in bringing non-model vertebrates to the forefront of biomedical research. The workshop also housed the first meeting for the growing spiny mouse research community.