Core B: Engineered Mouse Resource

The mission of the Engineered Mouse Core is to provide investigators with a series of resources for in vivo and in vitro functional analysis of ‘cystogenes’ in ductal epithelial cells of relevance to PKD.

In this regard, the Core is currently generating and characterizing a series of inducible Cre transgenic lines that will facilitate conditional disruption or expression of genes of interest in the collecting duct or proximal tubules of the kidney. The Core is also generating inducible Cre lines for the biliary and pancreatic ductal epithelium.

Due to the association between cilia dysfunction and pathogenesis of cystic kidney disease, a second objective of the Engineered Mouse Core is to generate a cilia-tag mouse. This is being accomplished using the tdTomato or mCherry proteins fused with a cilial targeting domain (graciously provided by Dr. Greg Pazour). This transgenic mouse will facilitate the in vivo observation and analysis of cilia function and will be an important reagent for live cell imaging studies.

The third major emphasis of Engineered Mouse Core is to screen the Cryopreserved Mutant Mouse Bank (CMMB) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for novel ENU-induced mutations in genes of interest to PKD-related research (Michaud et al.,2005). This unique resource will facilitate the generation of mouse lines with point mutations in specific domains of interest in PKD related genes. The core is currently focusing on a series genes associated with cilial function. Once a mutant is identified and the mouse line recovered the phenotypic effects will be assessed and mouse model will be made available to the PKD Core research base for a nominal charge. PKD Center Investigator can also submit requests to the Core to screen a gene or specific region(s) in a gene involved in PKD. In this case the cost associated with the screening and generation of the mice will be covered by the investigator making the request.

Core Services for 2006:

Resources                      

1. inducible Cre transgenic line
2. cilia-tag mouse
3. screen the Cryopreserved Mutant Mouse Bank

Contact Director for cost associated with these resources.

Planned services (beyond 2006):

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