The Transgenic Mouse Facility (TMF) was established in 1991 as a centralized core for the efficient production of transgenic animal models for UAB investigators. The shared facility is supported primarily by P30 Grants maintained by University Centers (Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC), Comprehensive Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Autoimmunity Center (CAMAC), Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease Core Center, and Center for Metabolic Bone Disease (CMBD)), and by user fees for services provided. Since inception, the TMF has completed more than 1000 DNA or ES cell microinjection projects for UAB investigators with more than 30 UAB investigators using the facility within the last year alone. In this proposal, funds are requested to purchase a state-of- the-art AutoGenPrep 965 (AGP965) fully automated high throughput robotic instrument for nucleic extraction and purification to be housed in the Transgenic Mouse Facility. While the AGP965 is designed to purify DNA from up to four 96 deep well plates in a matter of a few hours for a wide variety of downstream applications, the main intent of its use with this application is the purification of high quality genomic DNA from mouse tissue samples to facilitate genotyping of a large number of mice associated with multiple NIH grants. This application represents a broad, NIH-funded user base within the institution, of which the research endeavors of 18 major users are presented. The importance of the AGP965 technology is illustrated in Exhibit A, which lists the publications from the co-investigators on this proposal that resulted from projects using transgenic mouse models. Federal support of the major and minor users is provided in Tables 3 and 4, with an estimated usage of greater than 80% by the major user base. The AGP965 instrument is an essential resource that will significantly enhance research projects by multiple NIH peer reviewed research grants.
