Last year, a controversial paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences questioned the value of mouse models for studying conditions that involve inflammation, such as sepsis, burns, and trauma. Along with numerous citations in the scientific literature, the study generated a raft of news articles. Some scientists who study such inflammatory mouse models were left defending their research. Now, a new study by a pair of Japanese researchers has reanalyzed the data from the original paper and come to the opposite conclusion. The Japanese team used different statistical techniques and chose different genes to analyze. The authors argue that mice are good models for inflammatory conditions.