Wolfgang Wurst

1
The European Conditional Mouse Mutagenesis
Program (EUCOMM)

• Wolfgang Wurst
• Director
• Institute of Developmental Genetics
• GSF National Research Center for
• Environment and Health
• Munich /Neuherberg, Germany

2
Functional Genomics Presence

• Functions of most of the approximately 22.000
  genes underlying health and disease are unknown!

3
Functional Genomics Mouse as a model?

• Why using the mouse as the animal model for human
  disease?
• Genomes of human and mouse are sequenced
• 99 of human genes have direct orthologues in the
  mouse
• Embryonic development, anatomy, physiology and
  behaviour is conserved
• Gene structure, gene expression and genome
  organization are highly related
• Technology available to generate germline as well
  as somatic mutations
• Ideally suited to model the genetic basis of
  human diseases

4
The European Conditional Mouse Mutagenesis
Program (EUCOMM)

• Gene Bridges GmbH,Heidelberg, Germany, G.
  Stevens
• Institute Clinique de la Souris (ICS),
  Strasbourg, France, P. Chambon, J. Auwerx
• EMBL, Monterotondo, Italy, N. Rosenthal
• Medical Research Council, Mammalian Genetics
  Unit, Harwell, UK, S. Brown
• National Research Council, Monterotondo, Italy,
  G. Tocchini-Valentini
• German Resource Center for Genome Research
  (RZPD), Heidelberg, B. Korn

• GSF National Research Center for Environment and
  Health, Munich Neuherberg, Germany,
• W. Wurst (coordinator), M. Hrabe de Angelis
• Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, UK, A.
  Bradley (coordinator), W. Skarnes, P. Liu, T.
  Cox
• University Frankfurt, Medical School Germany, H.
  von Melchner
• Charite, Berlin, Germany, P. Ruiz
• University of Technology Dresden, Germany, F.
  Stewart

5
Functional Genomics Future

• EUCOMM launched by the EU establishes the largest
  functional mutagenesis effort to date.
• EUCOMM members are leading in
• Conditional gene targeting and gene trapping
  technologies
• High throughput mutagenesis units
• Standardized mouse phenotyping units
• Professional archiving and distribution centers

6
EUCOMM Objectives

• Generation of up to
• 20.000 conditional mutations in the mouse genome
• 300 mouse mutants
• Establishment of
• Archiving and worldwide distribution
• Funding
• European Commission funding 13 million / 3
  years

7
EUCOMM Mouse Model Production

• Priorities according to
• Human disease genes
• Biological relevance

8
EUCOMM Integration

• European initiatives National
  initiatives
• EUMORPHIA German Gene Trap Consortium
  (GGTC),
• EURExpress funded by BMBF, NGFN-2
• EMMA Genome Research,
  Sanger Center, Hinxton
• FunGenES funded by Wellcome Trust
• FLPFLEX
• International initiatives
• NorCOMM
• KOMP
• IGTC

9
EUCOMM Benefits

• Academic Research
• Freely available repository of mutant mouse ES
  cells
• Standardized, non-redundant mouse mutant
  production
• Cost-effective resource
• Training of students and postdocs
• Society
• Improvement of health research
• Speedup of drug development, therapy and
  diagnosis
• Competitive advantage for pharmaceutical industry