Animal Models


 

Rodents

 
Cre-Drivers for the Mouse Nervous System (web site coming soon)
A Blueprint-Funded Resource
Fact Sheet: pdf   html
  • Supports the design, creation, and characterization of Cre-recombinase-expressing (“Cre-Driver”) mouse lines on the C57B1/6 background, which can be used to drive expression of reporter genes and conditional-ready alleles in the mouse nervous system.
  • Through cooperative agreements with three labs, 100 or more novel recombinase-expressing lines will become available in the next several years along with a recombinase-expression profile for each line.
  • The principal investigators are Ron Davis at Baylor College of Medicine, Josh Huang at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Uli Mueller at Scripps Research Institute.
 
Gene Expression Nervous System Atlas (GENSAT)
A Blueprint-Funded Resource
Fact Sheet: pdf   html
  • An ongoing contract to map gene expression in the mouse nervous system by generating transgenic mice that carry a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) harboring the gene of interest and an EGFP reporter (principal investigator: Nathaniel Heintz at the Rockefeller University).
  • GENSAT also generates BAC Cre-driver lines to serve as tools for cell-specific genetic manipulations in the nervous system (co-principal investigator: Charles Gerfen at NIMH).
  • Blueprint funds support the deposition of the transgenic BAC EGFP and BAC Cre-driver lines into MMRRCs.
  • Related sites: NCBI GENSAT Database, St. Jude Brain Gene Expression Map
 
Mutant Mouse Regional Resource Centers (MMRRCs)
A Blueprint-Funded Resource
Fact Sheet: pdf   html
  • With primary support from NCRR, these facilities provide central archiving, quality control, and distribution of mouse strains and mouse embryonic stem cell lines.
  • Blueprint supplements were awarded to two existing MMRRC sites, the University of California at Davis and the University of Missouri/Harlan, to facilitate the distribution of mouse lines to the neuroscience community.
 
  • A contract that gives NIH-funded researchers access to more than 250 lines of knock-out mice, and associated phenotypic data, from the private collections of Deltagen and Lexicon.
 
  • Three facilities whose purpose is to generate mutant mice with neural and/or behavioral phenotypes, and distribute them to researchers.
 
 
  • Colonies of aged mice and rats available for research on aging and age-related diseases.
  • Includes banks of flash-frozen tissue, as well as tissue arrays for histological studies across the rodent life span.
 
  • Seeks to create a public bank of mouse embryonic stem cell lines that together contain a null mutation in every mouse gene.
 
  • Maintains and distributes transgenic mouse models of Parkinson's disease that are not available from national commercial sources.
 
  • Maintains and distributes rat models of the retinitis pigmentosa type of inherited retinal degeneration.
 
  • Produces, characterizes, and distributes mutant mouse strains with defects in embryonic and postembryonic development.

Non-Human Primates

 
  • House rhesus monkeys for use in non-invasive research, and store tissue samples from aged non-human primates.
 
  • A network of eight facilities that foster the development of non-human primate models of human health and disease.

Other Animals

 
  • Maintains over 1000 strains of the nematode C. elegans.
 
  • Database and forum for information about C. elegans strains, genes, cell-level anatomy, and research methods.
 
  • Maintains more than 20,000 fruit fly stocks, carrying all manner of mutations and genetic constructs.
 
  • A comprehensive database of the Drosophila genome, with information about stock collections and fly genetic tools.
 
  • Provides zebrafish lines, genetic tools, antibodies to zebrafish proteins, and assistance with fish rearing.
 
For more information, see the NIH site: Model Organisms for Biomedical Research.