This talk has been rescheduled to Wednesday, Mar. 24, at 3 p.m. in Masur Auditorium, Bldg. 10.

Working together since 1977, Drs. Nancy Jenkins and Neal Copeland are very much a team. Currently, they oversee the National Cancer Institute's Mouse Cancer Genetic Program in Frederick, Md. The focus of their research is the mouse genome, and over the past decade they have developed many new mouse models for studying cancer and other important human diseases.

Jenkins and Copeland will deliver this year's G. Burroughs Mider Lecture as part of the NIH Director's Lecture series. Their talk, titled "Retroviral Insertional Mutagenesis Provides a Roadmap for Navigating the Cancer Genome," will take place Wednesday, Jan. 14 at 3 p.m. in Masur Auditorium, Bldg. 10. Using mouse genetics to try to answer questions that would not be possible with technology alone, the couple sees the mouse as an excellent tool for understanding human disease better.

Their interest in mouse genetics began in 1980, when they joined the world's pre-eminent mouse lab — the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Me. In 1985, Jenkins joined the ABL-Basic Research Program as head of the molecular genetics of development section, which was part of the Mammalian Genetics Laboratory (MGL). In 1999, the MGL was incorporated into the Center for Cancer Research and renamed the Mouse Cancer Genetics Program. She is now head of the molecular genetics of development section with this program. Additionally, she was appointed editor-in-chief of the journal Genomics in 1997. Jenkins received her Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology from Indiana University.

Copeland also joined the ABL-Basic Research Program in 1985 as director of the Mammalian Genetics Laboratory and head of the molecular genetics of oncogenesis section. Upon becoming part of the Center for Cancer Research in 1999, his laboratory was renamed the Mouse Cancer Genetics Program and received increased resources to expand. Copeland received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Utah.

Their studies highlight the power of the mouse as an instrument for gene discovery and functional genomics in the modern genome era. The focus of their recent research involves the development of a dense gene-based linkage map of the mouse genome. Copeland and Jenkins are also attempting to develop an efficient Cre/loxP-mediated mitotic recombination system for mouse genome research.