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Notice of Intent to Publish Four Requests for Applications (RFAs)
for Knockout Mouse Project (KOMP) NOT-0D-05-063
The purpose of this Notice is to announce the NIH's intention to
issue three Requests for Applications (RFAs) in the late summer of 2005 for
the Knockout Mouse Project (KOMP) to solicit grant applications that will form
a KOMP research network with the goal of making maximum progress toward creating
mutant mice for each and every gene using gene targeting, trapping or transposon
mediated mutagenesis in the C57BL/6 mouse strain. A fourth RFA, for repositories
for the resources generated by the other RFAs, will be published in the Fall
2005. This is a trans NIH initiative being supported by a number of NIH Institutes
and Centers. The initiative will be open to academic, nonprofit, for profit
and international applicant institutions.
The first RFA, “ Completion of a Knockout Mouse Resource”, will be issued
by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI, http://www.genome.gov )
and will have two goals: 1) completing the current null mouse resource utilizing
gene targeting to generate a null mutation with a high utility reporter in
the approximately 10,000 genes that remain to be knocked out in the mouse.
It will be preferred that this work be done in C57BL/6 ES cells and secondarily
in other strains, such as 129. 2) applications will also be sought for cost
effective and robust gene trapping or transposon mutagenesis projects to make
a mouse resource for the entire or a significant portion of the mouse genome
in C57BL/6 mice. This RFA has been published: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-HG-05-007.html .
A second RFA, “ Development and Improvement of Inbred Embryonic Stem Cell
Lines for Use in High-Throughput Generation of Mouse Mutants” , calls for further
development of C57BL/6 ES cells lines to achieve highly efficient germ line
transmission of targeted or gene trap mutations in C57BL/6 ES cells. This RFA
has been published: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-DA-06-009.html .
The third RFA will solicit applications to develop a data coordination center
for the data and resources developed from the first and second RFAs. The goals
of the RFA will be 1) to collect data to track the progress of groups that
are generating mutants as part of the first RFA above; 2) to integrate this
data with other information on the availability and properties of mouse knockouts
from other projects; 3) to coordinate with other large genome databases to
disseminate this information; and 4) to develop a portal to allow investigators
in the public and private sector as well as NIH staff access to the data on
these mouse knock out resources. This RFA has been published: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-HG-05-008.html
A fourth RFA will be published later by National Center for Research Resources
(NCRR) to solicit applications
for public repositories for resources generated as part of the first and second
RFAs above, and similar resources from other projects. The goals of the RFA will
be to identify, accession, maintain, store, and distribute mutant ES cells and
knock out mice from the KOMP research network and other projects, as they become
available. Except in specific circumstances to be outlined in the RFA, it is
expected that the repositories will create mice from accessioned mutant ES cells
for distribution to the research community. A detailed plan as to how the repository
will make the mice, manage the resources, service customer requests, interact
with the data coordination center, and spread the costs of establishing mice
and embryos from mutant ES cells across requestors, will be required. It is anticipated
that all mice made by the project will be stored and distributed as cryopreserved
embryos. |