Notice Number: NOT-OD-05-063

Key Dates
Release Date: August 8, 2005

Issued by
National Institutes of Health (NIH), (http://www.nih.gov/)

The purpose of this Notice is to announce the NIH's intention to issue three Requests for Applications (RFAs) in the late summer of 2005 for the Knockout Mouse Project (KOMP) to solicit grant applications that will form a KOMP research network with the goal of making maximum progress toward creating mutant mice for each and every gene using gene targeting, trapping or transposon mediated mutagenesis in the C57BL/6 mouse strain. A fourth RFA, for repositories for the resources generated by the other RFAs, will be published in the Fall 2005. This is a trans NIH initiative being supported by a number of NIH Institutes and Centers. The initiative will be open to academic, nonprofit, for profit and international applicant institutions.

The first RFA, Completion of a Knockout Mouse Resource , will be issued by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI, http://www.genome.gov) and will have two goals: 1) completing the current null mouse resource utilizing gene targeting to generate a null mutation with a high utility reporter in the approximately 10,000 genes that remain to be knocked out in the mouse. It will be preferred that this work be done in C57BL/6 ES cells and secondarily in other strains, such as 129. 2) applications will also be sought for cost effective and robust gene trapping or transposon mutagenesis projects to make a mouse resource for the entire or a significant portion of the mouse genome in C57BL/6 mice. The mix of gene targeting, trapping and transposon mutagenesis to be funded will be decided after peer review of the applications received. Applicants need not apply for both goals of the RFA. The receipt date for applications to this RFA is likely to be late fall of 2005.

A second RFA, Development and Improvement of Inbred Embryonic Stem Cell Lines for Use in High-Throughput Generation of Mouse Mutants , calls for further development of C57BL/6 ES cells lines to achieve highly efficient germ line transmission of targeted or gene trap mutations in C57BL/6 ES cells. This RFA is being issued because it is recognized that it may not presently be possible to create the mouse null resource in strain C57BL/6. In that case, once the improved technology is developed under this RFA it will be rapidly transferred to investigators funded to create the null mutant mouse resource. This RFA is expected to be released by National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA; http://www.nida.nih.gov). Resources generated by the two RFAs are expected to be made available through NIH funded repositories for wide distribution to the scientific community.

The third RFA will solicit applications to develop a data coordination center for the data and resources developed from the first and second RFAs. The goals of the RFA will be 1) to collect data to track the progress of groups that are generating mutants as part of the first RFA above; 2) to integrate this data with other information on the availability and properties of mouse knockouts from other projects; 3) to coordinate with other large genome databases to disseminate this information; and 4) to develop a portal to allow investigators in the public and private sector as well as NIH staff access to the data on these mouse knock out resources. It is anticipated that a single data coordination center will be supported through this RFA which will released by NHGRI.

A fourth RFA will be published later by National Center for Research Resources (NCRR; www.ncrr.nih.gov) to solicit applications for public repositories for resources generated as part of the first and second RFAs above, and similar resources from other projects. The goals of the RFA will be to identify, accession, maintain, store, and distribute mutant ES cells and knock out mice from the KOMP research network and other projects, as they become available. Except in specific circumstances to be outlined in the RFA, it is expected that the repositories will create mice from accessioned mutant ES cells for distribution to the research community. A detailed plan as to how the repository will make the mice, manage the resources, service customer requests, interact with the data coordination center, and spread the costs of establishing mice and embryos from mutant ES cells across requestors, will be required. It is anticipated that all mice made by the project will be stored and distributed as cryopreserved embryos.

APPLICATIONS ARE NOT BEING REQUESTED AT THIS TIME.

Inquiries

Jane Peterson, Ph.D.
Division of Extramural Research
National Human Genome Research Institute
5635 Fisher Lane
Suite 4076
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, MD 20892
Tel: (301) 496-7531
E-mail: jane_peterson@nih.gov

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