The Murine Breeding and Molecular Genetics Core, located at the Bedford VAMC, supports the scientific research program at Boston University School of Medicine. The murine Breeding facility currently maintains a transgenic model of mice that under express apolipoprotein E (APOE) 2) Mice that express human variants of APOE 3) mice that over express or under express superoxide dismutase (SOD) 4) Calreticulin knockout mice. This comprehensive breeding facility will provide a unique resource for investigators by breeding specific mouse strains to produce mice required by the various investigators. Each of the models is relevant to different aspects of neurodegenerations and the development of therapeutic agents. The overall goal of the Mouse Breeding portion of the core is to maintain murine animal colonies and provider mice and/or animal tissues specimens for the purpose of experimental scientific research into various aspects of the pathological processes associated with AD. The Core will develop and maintain an information resource on animal experiments. This will include a database of information on the animal models (transgenic and knockout) and their potential use to researchers. The Core will be constantly working to bring in new transgenic mice, knockout mice and/or inducible transgenic systems to further research in AD. The Molecular Genetics portion of the core will provide support for the genetic studies conducted by investigators associated with the BU ADC and associated investigators. The Core will be responsible for the isolation of DNA from blood and/or buccal swabs obtained from patients followed by the Clinical Core. The DNA and serum will then be stored for distribution to investigators. The Core will also be responsible for the ApoE genotyping of patients followed by the Clinical Core and the genotyping of the transgenic animals being bred by this core. The Molecular Genetics portion of the core will also provide technical support for investigators from the BU, ADC, BUSM, as well as other Alzheimer's researchers. The Murine Breeding and Molecular Genetics Core will provide BU ADC associated investigators, as well as other AD researchers a centralized resource, providing ready access to well characterized murine models and human DNA samples for investigators molecular and genetic mechanisms associated with neurological diseases. This core will also help foster scientific collaboration between investigators.
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