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Library of gene function will speed up disease researchDownload a PDF of this release 29 September 2011Today marks the launch of the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC), a project to create one of the largest libraries of mammalian genetic function data.
Around 99 per cent of the genes in a mouse have an equivalent gene in humans. By understanding the function of all the genes within the mouse, scientists can improve their understanding of the role that genes play in human diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.
The IMPC programme will allow researchers from across the world to easily access all of the resources and information created by the programme on ‘knockout mice’ – that is, mice in which scientists have inactivated (or ‘knocked out’) a gene in order to discover what that gene does. This will substantially shorten the time between basic research and clinical application.
Dr Mark Moore, IMPC Executive Director, explains: “We want to characterise each line of mice broadly with no assumptions about what the gene may be doing. If you think of the function of a gene as a needle in a haystack, we’re removing the haystack so scientists can see what the needle does.”
"Our drive is to understand the role of genes in disease and use that understanding to improve healthcare," explains Dr Bill Skarnes of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. "The cells and DNA resources we have developed for IMPC have already proved their value in identifying genes involved in a form of anaemia. The integrated resources delivered by IMPC will make a real difference to researchers' work around the world."
Major funding has been awarded to members of the consortium by a number of national funding agencies. The first phase of this 10-year project will knock out 5000 mouse genes and describe their physical characteristics or phenotypes.
The IMPC project has gone through a lengthy period of planning and technical preparation. A fundamental component of this has been the planning for a data coordination centre (DCC) that will allow unrestricted public access to IMPC data.
Dr Paul Flicek of EMBL-EBI says: “The open resources created by IMPC will be integrated with many other molecular databases at EMBL-EBI and elsewhere, and benefit from advanced search functionality. This will ensure that researchers can make use of detailed data and high-level summaries of mouse phenotypes and other relevant biological information – for example human disease associations – well into the future.”
The IMPC is a worldwide consortium comprising 15 research institutions along with national funders from six countries. This strong international partnership hopes to increase its membership as the programme moves forward. NotesProfessor Steve Brown and Dr Mark Moore will be available to talk further about the IMPC launch via Webex conference on Friday 30th September at 4pm BST. Please email to register to join the conference and receive your passcodes: eumodic@har.mrc.ac.uk International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium website: www.mousephenotype.org Contact Sonia Furtado Neves, EMBL Press Officer, Heidelberg, Germany, Tel: +49 6221 387 8263 About MPI2NIH has awarded a five-year cooperative agreement totalling $10 million to EMBL-EBI, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Insitute and MRC Harwell, UK. About EMBL-EBIThe European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) is part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and is located on the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus in Hinxton near Cambridge (UK). The EBI grew out of EMBL's pioneering work in providing public biological databases to the research community. It hosts some of the world’s most important collections of biological data, including DNA sequences (ENA), protein sequences (UniProt), animal genomes (Ensembl), three-dimensional structures (the Protein Databank in Europe), data from gene expression experiments (ArrayExpress), protein-protein interactions (IntAct) and pathway information (Reactome). The EBI hosts several research groups and its scientists continually develop new tools for the biocomputing community. www.ebi.ac.uk About EMBLThe European Molecular Biology Laboratory is a basic research institute funded by public research monies from 20 member states (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom) and associate member state Australia. Research at EMBL is conducted by approximately 85 independent groups covering the spectrum of molecular biology. The Laboratory has five units: the main Laboratory in Heidelberg, and Outstations in Hinxton (the European Bioinformatics Institute), Grenoble, Hamburg, and Monterotondo near Rome. The cornerstones of EMBL’s mission are: to perform basic research in molecular biology; to train scientists, students and visitors at all levels; to offer vital services to scientists in the member states; to develop new instruments and methods in the life sciences and to actively engage in technology transfer activities. Around 190 students are enrolled in EMBL’s International PhD programme. Additionally, the Laboratory offers a platform for dialogue with the general public through various science communication activities such as lecture series, visitor programmes and the dissemination of scientific achievements. www.embl.org
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