Transgenic MouseMany in the biomedical sciences strongly believe that the progress of cancer research, and the position ofthe UCSD Cancer Center in the biomedical community during the next decade, will depend upon the abilityto use the mouse as an experimental model to investigate both basic and clinically relevant questions incancer research. The creation of new pre-clinical models of cancer in mice by genetic manipulation isspecifically cited by the NCI as one of four extraordinary opportunities they wish to exploit. Transgenic micecarrying new or novel genes are created by microinjection of DMA into the pronuclei of fertilized eggs and'knock-out' mice lacking specific genes of interest are created by homologous recombination in embryonicstem cells followed by injection into blastocysts to create chimeric mice for breeding to homozygosity. Thehigh degree of conservation of most sequences in genomes of humans and mice makes the idea of usingmouse genetic manipulation technology to create models of human cancer pathogenesis extremelyattractive. These approaches are remarkably powerful in cancer research particularly in the analysis ofoncogenes, metastasis, cell-cycle control, tumor suppressor genes, and in the crafting of cancer modelsystems for developing new treatment regimens, and methods for drug testing and tumor imaging. Themission of this Shared Resource is to provide the highly technical aspects of manipulation of genes inembryos and embryonic stem cells as a service to our Center members, allowing them to create thegenetically manipulated mouse models they need. This is an outstanding example of how specializedtechniques, highly trained dedicated personnel, and expensive equipment can be accessed by researcherswho could not reasonably expect to develop or obtain them on an individual basis. The availability of thisResource enables our researchers to conduct versatile, cutting-edge research with a battery of sophisticatedgenetic techniques.
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