EMMASERVICE

Servicing the European Biomedical Research Community: Archiving and Dissemination of Mouse Models of Human Disease

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

The mouse shows great similarities in development, physiology and biochemistry to humans, which makes it a key model for research into human disease. The major challenges for mouse functional genomics in the 21st century are to:

1) Develop a series of mutant alleles for every gene in the mouse genome 2) Determine the phenotypic consequences of each mutation 3) Identify mouse models for the complete disease spectrum in humans

To exploit this emerging resource, mouse models must be preserved and made available to the European biomedical research community. Building on EMMA's previous achievements as the primary mouse repository in Europe, EMMAservice aims to meet the future challenges presented by archiving and disseminating mouse models in the ERA as follows:

- Archiving of 1224 new mouse mutant lines in support of individual depositors and also European mouse genetics programmes - Support of eligible customers with free of charge Transnational Access for up to 20% of requested mouse resources. - Technology development will underpin the archiving and distribution efforts by advancing current sperm freezing technology - Training courses will promote the shipment of frozen germplasm rather than live mice - EMMA informatics will support user services by setting new standards for user friendly accession of EMMA services, extensive data curation and cross referencing with other mouse database resources - Outreach efforts to attract users will be widened and addressed at the translational research community

EMMAservice will contribute significantly to the development of a world leading repository and European capacity in mouse disease model archiving and distribution, supporting the needs of the wider European biomedical research community. The emerging mouse mutant and associated data resources will offer the opportunity to decipher molecular disease mechanisms and may, in some instances, provide the foundation for the development of diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic strategies.

Introduzione (Teaser)

The European Mouse Mutant Archive (EMMA) has been significantly expanded to preserve and sustain mouse mutant resources. Mice play a huge role in human disease research because their development, physiology and biochemistry are very similar to our own.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

The EU-funded EMMAservice project is now archiving over 1200 such new mouse mutant lines in the European Mouse Mutant Archive (EMMA).

A major part of the project is encouraging the transport of frozen germ cells rather than live mice between labs. Furthermore, the team have optimised transporting conditions such that germ cells can be shipped at cold temperature rather than frozen. In addition, they have demonstrated that laser in vitro fertilisation (IVF) with the germ cells is more effective than conventional IVF.

The majority of the lines being deposited from around the EU include genetic knock-outs (where certain genes have been disabled) modelling human disease as well as other valuable and demanded research tools.

The project has also begun to integrate the data associated with deposited mouse mutant lines with other online resources and databases to make the information available to scientists throughout the European Research Area (ERA). One interesting addition is that researchers can now search for EMMA mouse lines by associated human diseases.

EMMA does provide free of charge transnational access to mutant mice for up to 20% of service requests from its European customers. In aspiring to become a world leader, the repository will contribute significantly to biomedical research in terms of mouse model archiving and distribution.