News & Events

Phenomena - The Australian Phenomics Network Quarterly Newsletter

Monday, 19 June 2006

Singapore's Agency For Science, Technology & Research (A*STAR) sign collaborative agreement with The Australian Phenomics Facility

A*STAR's Centre for Molecular Medicine (CMM) have established a partnership with The Australian Phenomics Facility. This project involves screening sensitised libraries of ENU-gene variant mice for susceptibility to type-1 diabetes through a collaboration between Professor Kong Pong Lam from A*STAR and Professor Chris Goodnow at The Australian National University.

A Research Collaboration Agreement and service agreement were signed by Associate Professor Kong-Peng Lam, Acting Executive Director of A*STAR's Biomedical Research Council (BMRC) and Professor Ian Chubb AO, Vice Chancellor, ANU.

The agreements were signed in the presence of Prime Minister of Singapore Mr Lee Hsien Loong, who is on an official visit to Australia. The partnership in leading edge biomedical research represents a new milestone in the bilateral relationship Singapore shares with Australia. It will yield new knowledge and understanding in immunology and pave the way for other research collaborations between the two countries.

"This partnership further cements the close collaborative relationship ANU has with Singapore and will enhance research efforts in both countries," Professor Chubb said.

The collaborative research programme will focus on understanding the causes and manifestations of Type 1 Diabetes and other autoimmune and immunopathological disorders. It will study the functions of genes and proteins that are involved in immune tolerance and how their dysfunctions could lead to the failure of an individual's immune system to recognise its own cells and tissues and result in immune cells attacking self organs and tissues - a phenomenon known as autoimmune disease. For example, in Type 1 Diabetes, immune cells attack the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, thereby affecting an individual's ability to regulate blood glucose levels. Other examples of autoimmune diseases are rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and multiple sclerosis.

The insight to be gained on the mechanisms leading to autoimmune diseases may enable the identification of predictive or diagnostic markers as well as the development of therapeutics to treat such diseases.

ARC Federation Fellow Professor Chris Goodnow, Chief Scientific Officer of the APF and an expert in the field of immune tolerance, said, "This is an exciting opportunity to bring together world-class expertise in Singapore and Australia, and focus it on cutting-edge problems at the interface between immunology and genomics. The exchange of scientists and skills fostered by this program will deliver great synergies."

Associate Professor Lam, Principal Coordinator of the Immunology group at CMM, said "Immunology is a critical field for Singapore's push towards biomedical science research as it is closely linked to many clinical conditions such as autoimmune diseases, allergy, infections and cancer. The partnership with ANU will also serve as an important link for the cross-training of students and scientists in Australia and Singapore."

Database of Murine Strains

Until now, it has been difficult for researchers to determine whether a particular strain of mouse already exists in Australia.

Through an NHMRC Enabling grant the Australian Phenomics Facility has developed an Internet accessible database of murine strains housed in Australia. This database has been titled "The NHMRC Australian Phenome Bank". The Phenome Bank database provides Australian researchers a central location to gain information about strains of mice maintained in Australia, whether alive or cryopreserved. This database will be accessible to all researchers. It includes fields such as phenotype, genotype, affected gene, reproduction efficiency, pathogen status and images of the animals (if data is available). The database can be used to identify whether mice carrying mutations in a particular gene exist within Australia. Researchers may be interested in a particular disease or developmental stage and can search the Phenome Bank database for mice harbouring abnormalities within specific organs, tissues or cell types or biological functions resulting in disease or developmental abnormalities. All researchers in Australia are encouraged to contribute their mouse strain information to this database. (To address security concerns personal information, institutional and animal facility addresses will not be listed on the web page).

To access the database use : http://pb.apf.edu.au/phenbank

The Phenome Bank is always improving with new strains added weekly. The maintenance of strain data will be ongoing. We welcome feedback on how to improve the database . The databases established by ANZSLAS and ANZSCDBI have been incorporated into the Phenome Bank. The strains housed at APF and the ENU mutants generated from library screens are incorporated into the database as they are identified.

The Phenome Bank database will foster exchange and expertise and minimise duplication of mouse resources.

Murine Sperm Cryopreservation

In association with the Phenome Bank database the APF is offering a sperm cryopreservation service. The service is free of charge if the strain(s) are distributable to other researchers. The depositing researcher maintains ownership of the strain and may use MTAs with requesting scientists. A depositing MTA will need to be executed between the depositing researcher and the APF. The depositor will need to pay for mouse shipping costs only. The ongoing maintenance costs are covered by the NH&MRC Enabling Grant. The information of cryopreserved strains will be entered into the Phenome Bank. Researchers may also pay for the cryopreservation and on going maintenance if they do not want the strain distributed.

Contact

For more information on the database or cryopreservation please contact Dr Stuart Read at the Australian Phenomics Facility.

E: Stuart.Read@anu.edu.au
T: 02 6125 1325

THE APF is offering access for researchers to screen existing libraries for their favourite phenotype (for a limited time only)

The Australian Phenomics Facility is a leading organization that provides a unique approach to the study of physiology and health via the elucidation of the genome-phenome code. Many of the health problems we face today - obesity, cancer, autoimmune diseases, allergy, cardiovascular disease - stem from a discordance between genetics and environment. Our facility has pioneered technologies to produce libraries of mice with informative gene alterations and ways of using those libraries for new genome-phenome discoveries.

ENU gene variant mouse libraries

Genome-wide chemical mutagenesis of mouse spermatogonia with EthylNitrosourea (ENU) allows a high fraction of mammalian genes to be altered without any prior assumptions or knowledge about their physiological roles. Pedigrees of these gene-variant mice can be scanned for phenotypes of interest in a highly parallel fashion. The point-mutations produced by ENU yield a large range of gene variant alleles, creating loss of function defects in individual protein domains and splice variants, partial function, and overactive versions that can reveal different functional roles that are not revealed by complete absence of a protein product. The APF produces libraries of ENU-gene variant mice on inbred, intercross, or genetically sensitised backgrounds. These libraries are structured for detection of new recessive or dominant alterations in mammalian physiological or pathological processes. The pedigrees are designed so the offspring at the G3 stage from any one G2 breeder pair will carry approximately 20-30 homozygous recessive random gene mutations with each appearing at a modal frequency of 1/4. A minimum of 12 mice in each family are screened so that multiple mice (on average 3/12) will show the same phenotypic trait ensuring reproducibility in this pedigree before being chosen for further analysis.

The APF also offers gene-variant research strains that have already been identified and serve as valuable unique models for investigating allergy, obesity, autoimmunity, neurological, cancer and development.

Current Offer

For a limited time the Australian Phenomics Facility is offering researchers initial access to screen existing ENU-gene variant libraries at no charge. Libraries on either C57BL/6 or CBAxC57BL/6 mixed background are currently available. In addition researchers can access strains that have been discovered in previous ENU gene variant libraries. These new strains are at a stage of analysis where the map location and preliminary phenotype is known and a researcher can use the APF facilities for further phenotypic examination. In relevant cases the APF will work with the researcher to expand strains of interest to gene identification and further phenotypic characterisation. In these cases IP will be claimed but recoverable at cost to the research team or institution if the outcomes are not to be shared with other research groups.

Access
For more information interested researchers should discuss their screen with Head of Scientific Programs, Dr Ed Bertram (Edward.Bertram@anu.edu.au or 02 6125 1328). [Please note: while all screens will be considered by the APF's Scientific Advisory Board, priority will be given to those that are best able to overlap with existing phenotypic screens.] For more information on access to new gene-variant strains and those that serve as valuable animal models of disease please contact our Phenome Bank Curator, Dr Stuart Read (Stuart.Read@anu.edu.au or 02 6125 1324).

IP Policy

The APF encourages users to share research outcomes, scientific data and to acknowledge the facility and the scientific support it provides. The APF supports low cost initial enquiries and investigations provided that any IP created is either jointly owned with the APF or that it is made freely available to other research groups. The more commercial and exclusive the arrangement the more full cost recovery will form the basis for charges to the client. Full commercial rights are available once the costs of the original access are fully recovered. This needs to be advised at the outset of any work and a ledger of these costs will be maintained for future reference.