Poor reproducibility of published research employing model organisms and lack of transparency of study designs have become areas of concern for the scientific community. These issues can profoundly affect the interpretation of preclinical studies and must be addressed as genome editing technologies permit rapid modeling of patient- specific, disease-associated genetic variation and translation to the clinic in the forms of patient risk assessment, management, and treatment. At the heart of reproducibility issues are the model organism themselves. Stability and identity of the genetic background, genome integrity, and specifics of genetically engineered alleles often vary between studies due to use of similar but independently developed models or differences in the quality of model maintenance. Centralization and standardization of high-quality production and maintenance of animal models can begin to address issues with study reproducibility and transparency and has been highly successful for our existing animal modeling programs. The Resource and Service Section of the BCM Center for Precision Medicine Modeling will build on existing expertise and infrastructures of the Undiagnosed Diseases Network Model Organism Screening Center Drosophila Core at BCM, the BCM Knockout Mouse Production and Phenotyping site, the BCM-Rice Small Animal Testing Center for the Somatic Cell Genome Editing Program, and a large rhesus macaque sequence resource in the Human Genome Sequencing Center to (1) acquire, characterize, and maintain high-quality fly and mouse resources, (2) preserve and distribute fly and mouse resources, (3) coordinate Center fee-for-service activities for biomedical researchers, (4) communicate the availability and quality of Center resources and services, and (5) enact procedures to evaluate Section operations.
