This project encompasses the establishment and maintenance of a new Informatics, Coordination, and Service Center (ICSC) for the support of the Mutant Mouse Regional Resource Centers. The regional centers include University of California, Davis, University of North Carolina, University of Missouri, and The Jackson Laboratory. These members collectively operate to serve the needs of the biomedical research community for high-quality mutant mouse strains for research in diverse areas of biomedicine. The ICSC provides centralized informatics and coordinates repository activities. Informatics services primarily consist of a strain catalog database, a public MMRRC website, interfaces for ordering and customer support, and software tools and web interfaces to support the curation of the large repository frozen embryos, spermatozoa, embryonic stem (ES) cell lines, and living mice. The project members will initially receive all of the current data from the existing ICSC at The Jackson Laboratory and design, implement, and maintain a new and improved set of service solutions. All work will be conducted by staff within the Mouse Biology Program at University of California, Davis as well as consulting experts on mouse curation. The informatics support will include ongoing consultation with the MMRRC members, database design and implementation, and programming for data manipulation and web presentation. All informatics infrastructure maintenance will be an internal function of the Mouse Biology Program Informatics Group. Additional Mouse Biology Program staff will provide support for strain acquisition and curation, customer service, and marketing.
This proposal to establish an informatics, coordination, and customer service center for the Mutant Mouse Regional Resource Center (MMRRC) program will ensure that mouse models of human disease will be readily available for use in biomedical research. Such research activity is crucial for advancing our knowledge of disease processes causing health problems in the US population.
