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Latest news and events related to the activities of the INFRAFRONTIER Research Infrastructure.
The INFRAPLUS’s kick-off took place over two productive days in Munich. With lively discussions and concrete plans, we have set the stage for INFRAFRONTIER’s expansion in state-of-the-art in vivo models, innovative in vitro models, preclinical services, and data analysis. All set to get started!
Our partners at NKI and colleagues have developed the OBSERVE guidelines to improve the preparation and reporting of in vivo cancer studies in rodents. The guidelines provide detailed instructions on optimal preparation, implantation methods, and monitoring criteria. They also address expected adverse effects and offer tools to minimise distress and pain in animal models, promoting ethical practices and animal welfare in cancer research.
July has brought two major networking opportunities to INFRAFRONTIER: the 48th FEBS Congress in Milan, where we joined EURO-BioImaging, EU-OPENSCREEN, and Instruct, and the RExPO 4EU event in Munich focused on Drug Repurposing. Both events were enriching experiences that promise to foster new collaborations and enhance our outreach.
Our partners at MRC Harwell and ICS have published the Laboratory Animal Genetic Reporting framework to improve the genetic reporting and validation of laboratory animal models, thereby reinforcing the reliability of animal experiments. This publication is a collaboration with the INFRAFRONTIER Consortium and other colleagues.
Partners from the German Mouse Clinic (Helmholtz Munich), in collaboration with INFRAFRONTIER and IMPC colleagues, reveal a convergence of schizophrenia risk genes with mouse prepulse inhibition genes. Using hierarchical clustering and weighted gene co-expression network analysis, the study highlights neuronal genes involved in synaptic function and neurotransmission.
A new study by our partners at the German Mouse Clinic (at Helmholtz Munich) and colleagues from IBioBA-CONICET demonstrates that circular RNAs, specifically circTulp4, play a significant role in neural processes. The research used a loss-of-function animal model, showing that circTulp4 affects neurotransmission and brain behaviour.
Our partners from Biocenter Oulu have co-authored a study revealing that two TIE1 loss-of-function variants are linked to primary lymphedema, a condition causing tissue swelling and fibrosis, and are lethal in homozygous mice.
INFRAFRONTIER received the ERIC plate in a ceremony led by Anna Panagopoulou, the Director at DG Research & Innovation. After a powerful speech, she gave the floor to Martin Hrabe de Angelis, who explained the work and impact of INFRAFRONTIER. Also LOFAR ERIC was honoured. With these new additions, Europe now counts with 28 ERICs. Watch the ceremony here!
The latest collaboration of INFRAFRONTIER with the German Mouse Clinic is available on line. This publication shows how standardising quality of life and wellbeing assessment protocols in mouse research can improve the relevance of these studies to human clinical trials. Supported by the CORBEL project.
The second ‘live’ Charlie Consortium Meeting brought together global experts on rare diseases linked to lysine metabolism disorders at Helmholtz Munich, co-organised by the German Mouse Clinic and INFRAFRONTIER.
INFRAFRONTIER joint the Be Open about Animal Research Day (#BOARD24) celebration on 3 May. We are proud to stand together with over 1000 institutions in promoting transparency in animal research, and emphasise our commitment to animal welfare through three dedicated cards highlighting our 3R practices.
INFRAFRONTIER and IMPC joined forces at The Allied Genetics Conference in Washington DC to promote their resources and portfolio in front of several model communities. Apart from being an excellent opportunity to establish connections with new researchers, we were fortunate to coincide with partners and colleagues.
The Finnish EMMA node, in collaboration with the University of Oulu, successfully concluded a practical Tissue Analysis Course for doctoral students. Delving into disease modelling and digital pathology, among other topics, participants gained invaluable insights and resources to enhance their research carrier.
The visit of Dr. Yoshitaka Fujihara marks the successful startup of the Fibrobesity Visitor Programme launched by our partner in Finland, the University of Oulu. In this way, Dr. Fujihara has become the first visiting professor supported by the mentioned programme. The 2-weeks stay took place last October thanks to the hospitality of Dr. Renata Prunskaite-Hyyryläinen’s laboratory.
In a groundbreaking study published in Nature, an international team of researchers, including our partners from CCP, has discovered a crucial link between autoimmune disorders and defects in tooth enamel development. This study sheds light on the poorly understood conditions of Amelogenesis Imperfecta in patients with Autoimmune Polyglandular Syndrome Type-1 (APS-1) and Celiac Disease.
INFRAFRONTIER recently engaged with rare disease experts at the RARE 2023 Conference in Budapest. Lively discussions at our booth focused on disease models, while sessions explored various perspectives, from early diagnosis biomarkers to palliative care. A fabulous opportunity to engage with this scientific community.
After a long time in the making, INFRAFRONTIER has officially become an ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium). This significant milestone emphasises INFRAFRONTIER’s dedication to excellence and collaboration across Europe in pioneering research initiatives. It would not have been possible without the support of the Founding Members: Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece and Sweden. Exciting times coming!
The EOSC-Life consortium publishes an article in the EMBO Journal, outlining effective measures to boost the utilization and sustainability of data resources. The study also presents twelve recommendations for handling research data in alignment with FAIR principles.
Under the canSERV Open Call, researchers are invited to apply for a portfolio of services covering the entire oncology developmental pipeline, with the participation of 9 INFRAFRONTIER partners providing in vivo services. Deadline: 4 January 2023
A study conducted by the German Mouse Clinic and collaborating research institutions reveals a previously unknown connection between the DHX9 gene and various rare neurodevelopmental disorders.
Biomedcode’s Tg197 human TNF transgenic mouse model of chronic destructive arthritis provides new insights on how combination treatment with Dasatinib and low-dose anti-TNF leads to synergistic senolytic effects on chondrocytes and effective treatment of arthritis.
A Biomedcode collaboration has developed a human-RANKL dependent breast cancer mouse model aiming to study disease mechanisms and establish preclinical platforms for the evaluation of human therapeutics targeting cancer.
A new publication of INFRAFRONTIER in Mammalian Genome is available on line now. Get an overview of the latest INFRAFRONTIER advancements, including services, resources, and technical developments.
The ESHG brought together the most innovative research projects in human genetics. Thanks to representatives from the Mary Lyon Centre at MRC Harwell, INFRAFRONTIER had the opportunity to inform researchers of their expansive service portfolio.
New research identified an endogenous factor influencing amyloid pathology in Alzheimer’s disease using the APPPS1-21 mouse model. The study opens doors to novel polymorphism-based interventions.
INFRAFRONTIER services and resources on rare diseases were presented in RE(ACT) Congress in March. The stand attracted the attention of many visitors who came to find out more about the infrastructure.
The new state-of-the-art BSL-3 laboratory for work with highly infectious viruses and bacteria in the Czech Republic opened in March at the Czech Centre for Phenogenomics (CCP).
A useful resource for institutions that receive laboratory animals from colleagues or third parties to ensure that a tried and tested system of quality control is in place.
Mouse models are relevant to study the functionality of genes involved in human diseases; however, translation of phenotypes can be challenging. This paper identified 153 genes associated with heart disease in humans, 151 with a one-to-one mouse ortholog.
MorphoPHEN, the interdisciplinary master in Human Diseases Models Morphological Phenotyping has been awarded with European funding until 2028. This master aims to generate a positive impact of preclinical biomedicine and improve human translatability. Applications deadline: 31 March
Staff from Oulu EMMA node and Oulu Laboratory Animal Centre visited the axenic and gnotobiology facilities at Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC), Lisbon.
As part of the ERN-ITHACA network actions, partners from the Children’s Memorial Health Institute in Warsaw, visited Oulu University Hospital and University of Oulu in Finland. The guests received a series of trainings on molecular genetic methods.
Outreach activities are very important to inform the public about our research. In December 2022, CCP members started with a series of lectures on the links between gene functions and human diseases: The Gene Age Lecture Series.
Three approaches with a reputation for slowing ageing processes have proven largely ineffective. For their study, researchers developed a new method to measure aging, which accounts for the complexity of ageing in organisms.
The International Conference of Research Infrastructures 2022 (ICRI 2022) will take place from 19-21 October in Brno, Czech Republic.
The 17th Transgenic Technology Meeting (TT2022), organized by the International Society of Transgenic Technology (ISTT) will take place on 17 – 20 September 2022 in Helsinki, Finland.
Suitable animal models are essential for translational research, especially in the case of complex, multifactorial conditions, such as obesity.
Using genetically sterile Prm1 males is a recognised alternative to surgical vasectomy when generating pseudopregnant females for embryo transfer programmes.
The 20th anniversary of the ICS (Institut Clinique de la Souris) coincides with the 20th anniversary of the sequencing of the mouse genome!
This recently published translational study sheds light on the UQCRH gene and mitochondrial complex III diseases. An international team led by researchers and clinicians from Helmholtz Zentrum München, Germany, Manchester Centre for Genomic Medicine, UK, Newcastle University, UK and University Hospital Salzburg, Austria, identified two cousins with a deletion in the UQCRH gene, which codes for a structural complex III subunit, and characterized a novel mouse model that carries the equivalent deletion in Uqcrh.
In this current study scientists teamed up to unraveled the mechanistic cascade underlying cortical spreading depression (CSD) and migraine susceptibility exemplified in a mouse model of familial hemiplegic migraine type 3 (FHM3).
Influenza during pregnancy increases the susceptibility to infection in offspring In this recent study, scientists of the Heinrich-Pette-Institute, Hamburg, and the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover together with colleagues from the Helmholtz Zentrum München, the Imperial College London, and the Research Center Borstel could show, that moderate influenza A infection of pregnant mice increased the offspring’s susceptibility to infection from other viruses as well as bacteria, especially early in life. Enhanced vulnerability to infection in neonates was associated with reduced haematopoetic development and immune responses.
Virtual mindmap shows the way through a diverse network of research options for Rare Diseases
The European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases (EJP RD), coordinating 130 institutions from 35 countries, is the largest international network of activities to fight the more than 7,000 known rare diseases. Launched by the European Commission in 2019, the programme´s vital goal is to create a comprehensive, sustainable European and worldwide “rare diseases ecosystem” – allowing a virtuous circle between research, care and medical innovation.
The interest in the scientific community to fight the pandemic using mouse models is remarkably high. In December 2020, INFRAFONTIER launched an attractive free-of-charge service for the biomedical research community fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic: The COVID-19 Therapeutics Pipeline Trans-national Access (TA) Call offered academic researchers to test their novel therapeutics and vaccine candidates in a preclinical Bio-Safety Level 3 (BSL3) pipeline using COVID-19 optimized mouse models
Scientists from the University of Bonn in collaboration with colleagues from Radboud University, Nijmegen and the German Mouse Clinic showed, that Creld1, the first single gene linked to atrioventricular septal defects (AVSD) of newborn, regulates myocardial development and function in mice.
Famous mouse model workshop in Leiden has opened its online registration. The Innovative Mouse Models workshop IMM2021 in Leiden has a long history and is highly acknowledged among biomedical and genetic scientists worldwide. Due to the pandemic situation in Europe, the famous mutant mouse workshop, traditionally held at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and co-organized by INFRAFRONTIER´s Dutch partner institute NKI, will be presented as a virtual meeting this year for the first time.
On 22 February 2021, thirty universities, research organizations and biomedical companies in France signed the “French transparency charter on the use of animals for scientific and regulatory purposes”
A new EBRA cluster will coordinate the predictive use of animal models in brain research
The European Union and its member states have been investing in research to better understand the human brain and its disorders for many years.
The International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium has announced the election of a new Senior Leadership Team (SLT): Radislav Sedlácek is the new Chairman of IMPC, and Yann Herault the new Vice-Chair. Steve Brown, who was the Chair for many years, has stepped down to become the Past Chair. All three of them are long-term members of IMPC as well as INFRAFRONTIER.
As part of the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC), researchers from Helmholtz Zentrum München led by Prof. Hrabě de Angelis, have uncovered a large number of novel genes controlling the mineral density of bone. Because bone mineral density is low in patients with osteoporosis, these findings will help to better understand the underlying molecular mechanisms of the disease. The new insight is important to advance precision medicine for people affected by osteoporosis in terms of prevention and therapeutic options.
In a common effort, scientists of the German Mouse Clinic and Turku University examined the immune system of genetically modified mice that develop high estrogen levels in males. Applying in vivo and molecular phenotyping approaches, the researchers showed that an imbalanced circulating estrogen to androgen ratio in male mice feminized their immune response. Furthermore, their B cell function was altered, and the risk of autoimmune diseases was enhanced. The study was published recently in Scientific Reports.
KOMP program director Colin Fletcher and his colleague Oleg Mirochnitchenko from NIH, former RIKEN BRC director Yuichi Obata, Ann Flenniken from TCP and Luis Santos from MRC Harwell are the winners of this year´s IMPC Awards.
Each year in autumn, the Steering Committee of the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC) honours several members of the consortium with the IMPC Awards of Excellence in three categories:
Using a combination of in vitro and in vivo screens, scientists from the Helmholtz-Zentrum München and colleagues identified the RNA-modifying enzyme METTL6 as a potential new oncogene. In line with findings that loss of METTL6 inhibits liver cancer cell proliferation and impaired colony formation capacity, low expression of METTL6 correlates with increased survival of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.
By funding £20 million into a new National Mouse Genetics Network, the British Medical Research Council (MRC) acknowledges the critical importance of the mouse as an experimental model. The Mary Lyon Centre (MLC) in Harwell will serve as the national facility hub of the new network.
Lydia Teboul from INFRAFRONTIER partner MRC Harwell has been awarded the 3Rs Prize 2020 of the International Society for Transgenic Technologies (ISTT). The prize recognises Lydia’s work in developing a new technique to reduce the number of animals used in research.
How can genetically modified mouse models help scientists with their research on cancer – one of the predominant causes of human deaths in Europe and worldwide? This was the working question dominating the 4th Annual Conference of the INFRAFRONTIER Research Infrastructure, held virtually on 7 and 8 October 2020.
Inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate 3-kinase-A (ITPKA) is the neuronal isoform of ITPKs and exhibits both actin bundling and InsP3kinase activity. In addition to neurons, ITPKA is ectopically expressed in tumor cells, where its oncogenic activity increases tumor cell malignancy. This raise the question, if inhibition of ITPKA could reduce oncogenic activity. However, prior to developing ITPKA specific inhibitors for treatment of cancer patients, it has to be excluded that ITPKA exhibits essential functions in non-tumor cells.
An international team of researchers lead by Helmholtz Zentrum München uncovered the molecular mechanisms that link rRNA methylation to development and disease. The study was published in “Genes & Development”.
17 to 18 November 2020, MRC Harwell Institute, Harwell, UK
This course provides an introduction to basic pathology terminology and how to recognise physiological and pathological changes in mouse tissues sections stained with H&E. It will include an introduction to background pathology in mice, how spontaneous and induced pathology can be distinguished and techniques for recording pathology data. It is aimed at research staff, technical staff, students and medical or veterinary pathology trainees with some experience of evaluating tissue sections using a light microscope.
INFRAFRONTIER, the European Research Infrastructure for developing, phenotyping, archiving, and distribution of genetically modified mouse and rat models, has decided to postpone its annual scientific conference. The INFRAFRONTIER Conference 2020 with its focus on “Targeting Cancer with Animal Models” had originally been scheduled for 22 to 24 June 2020 in Brussels, Belgium will now be postponed to 7 to 9 October 2020, same location.
Munich / Salt Lake City – The role for iron in the pathogenesis of diabetes is on debate. While the consequences of excess iron in β-cell function and survival are established, the effects of iron deficiency on β-cell function and diabetes risk in humans are not yet fully understood.
In the INFRAFRONTIER2020 specialised phenotyping program, INFRAFRONTIER partner institutions offer the indepth characterisation of mouse mutants for interested biomedical researchers all around the globe. The call is free of charge for the user, concerning scientific service and expertise.
Munich / Stockholm – Karolinska Institutet, one of the world´s leading medical universities selecting the Nobel Prize laureates in Physiology or Medicine every year, is now a co-owner of INFRAFRONTIER GmbH.
High quality in research data and strict quality standards and procedures have always had a top priority in the EMMA consortium and the INFRAFRONTIER research infrastructure from their very first day.
However, a consortium-wide expert meeting about a complete system of Quality Management (QM) for the whole consortium: This was a premiere in the INFRAFRONTIER QM Workshop on 8 and 9 October 2019 in Munich.
It is the start into a new era at BIOCEV campus, the newly built Centre of Excellence in Biomedicine and Biotechnology in Vestec near Prague: On 12 and 13 September 2019, the Czech Centre for Phenogenomics (CCP) is inviting the European biomedical research community for its first top-level scientific conference on Phenogenomics.
The annual conference of the International Mammalian Genome Society (IMGS) in autumn is a highlight for researchers in functional genomics worldwide. After exciting and scientifically fruitful meetings in Puerto Rico (November 2018) and Heidelberg (October 2017), the IMGS invites its global community to the 33rd edition of the International Mammalian Genome Conference (IMGC) to Strasbourg, France.
It´s a unique training event for of all kinds of biomedial scientists working with mouse models – held in a fascinating location: The bi-annually organized European Advanced School for Mouse Phenogenomics, taking place on 20 to 24 May 2019 near Strasbourg, offers an overview of up-to-date methods and good practices for the use of mouse models in scientific research that cannot be found anywhere else in Europe.
“The application of artificial intelligence is the next big step to discover new ground in our massive biomedical data sets. We have to make use of this disruptive technology now”, says Prof. Dr. Martin Hrabĕ de Angelis, director at the Helmholtz Center Munich and coordinator of the pan-European project “INFRAFRONTIER”.
Abstract submission and registration for the “Mesenchymal cells in inflammation immunity and cancer” workshop in Athens-Greece, 19 – 23 May, 2019 is NOW OPEN
GV-SOLAS, the German Society for Laboratory Animal Research, is Europe´s oldest and largest association of animal research experts of all kind –scientists, veterinary doctors, animal keepers, and operators of animal facilities. Its annual meeting 2018 was held on 12 to 14 September in Munich.
In its second Open Call CORBEL (Coordinated Research Infrastructures Building Enduring Life-science services ) invites researchers from the biomedical field to apply to access technologies and services offered by more than 20 facilities from 10 different research infrastructures (RIs) across Europe, including INFRAFRONTIER.
You want to learn more about gene editing and how it really works? You want to hear about current advances on many technical aspects and to optimize the RNA guide design to the genotyping analysis?
From 16th to 18th October 2018 MRC Harwell offers a practical training course in transgenic technology. The course is aimed at newcomers to the transgenic field or those looking to brush up their skills. Participants will have practical hands on experience in a technique that will enable them to generate their own mutant mouse models using CRISPR/CAS9 reagents.
The human microbiome and its immense impact on the health conditions of the human body has become a vital topic in international biomedical research – as shown lately in a interesting article in the British daily The Guardian.
In 2018, two big European meetings co-organized by INFRAFRONTIER will cover the role of animal research for studying the microbiome:
In a new Trans-national Access Call INFRAFRONTIER offers open access to its infrastructure and expertise for researchers who need rat mutant models to be generated for their scientific aims. It’s the first time that the European research infrastructure for modeling human diseases via mammalian genomes expands its unique services to generate not only mouse, but rat models for its users.
At the end of August, the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna will offer a comprehensive course on cryopreservation, embryo transfer and other methods of assisted reproduction of mice. The advanced training course is intended to give state-of-the-art background knowledge and hands-on training used at Vetmeduni Vienna to technicians and scientists (post-graduate) working in the field of animal research and scientific experiments.
Health Data Research UK will invest £30 million in a newly developed big data approach for health and biomedical informations from all over the country. Starting in April 2018, only six sites in the UK with high-class expertise in the management of health data will be part of the new public venture.
A new multi-organ disease named FINCA (Fibrosis, Neurodegeneration and Cerebral Angiomatosis) that is fatal in early childhood has been identified in three pediatric patients in Finland. Children affected have previously undescribed formation of connective tissue in the lungs, neurodegeneration and increased vasculature formation in the brain.
Scientists have identified a network of genes that could play a vital role in the development of metabolic diseases such as diabetes
This is the first stakeholder meeting of INFRAFRONTIER, the European Research Infrastructure for phenotyping and archiving of model mammalian genomes. The meeting will be jointly organized with the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC, www.mousephenotype.org) to which INFRAFRONTIER is contributing. Focus of this meeting is on ‘Advancing Personalised Medicine with Animal Models’. The meeting is open to a wide range of INFRAFRONTIER stakeholders including Personalised Medicine initiatives, Rare Disease networks, funders, regulators and the INFRAFRONTIER user community to discuss advances in CRISPR/Cas9 technology to model human conditions.
Two major papers from the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium have been published today in Nature Genetics and Nature Communications.
The RItrain Project, launched a unique international management development programme.
Partners of the INFRAFRONTIER Research Infrastructure offer unique training opportunities in mouse phenogenomics, genome editing and cryopreservation technologies.
The Jackson Laboratory is delivering a hands-on mouse surgery workshop at UPMC in Paris, France.
INFRAFRONTIER, the European Research Infrastructure for phenotyping and archiving of model mammalian genomes is opening a call to facilitate access for the wider biomedical research community to the unique infrastructure and scientific expertise of the INFRAFRONTIER mouse clinics. INFRAFRONTIER offers the testing of mouse mutant lines through a broad based primary phenotyping pipeline in all the major adult organ systems and most areas of major human disease. Access will be granted on the basis of scientific excellence and supports the development and in depth characterisation of new mouse models for investigating gene function and human pathophysiology. INFRAFRONTIER will provide open access to all newly developed disease models and phenotyping data.
The preliminary programme for the Anatomical Bases of Mouse Multimodal Imaging Course, which will be held at the Czech Centre for Phenogenomics (CCP) has been announced.
This 5 day hands-on course will be led by Jesús Ruberte and Marc Navarro, authors of the textbook ‘Morphological Mouse Phenotyping: Anatomy, Histology and Imaging’.
CORBEL – Coordinated Research Infrastructures Building Enduring Life-science services – is an EC Horizon2020 project uniting 11 Biological and Medical Science Research Infrastructures (RIs). In CORBEL, the participating RIs expand their cooperation in order to harmonise researchers’ access to their cutting-edge technologies and services by establishing a sustainable platform of aligned services that will enable faster admission to and a wider portfolio of technologies and services to boost research projects.
Roughly a third of all genes in the mammalian genome are essential for life. A new article in Nature, from an international, multi-institutional research team including many INFRAFRONTIER partners, describes the large-scale discovery of those genes and how it will impact understanding of mammalian development and human disease.
INFRAFRONTIER, the European Research Infrastructure for phenotyping and archiving of model mammalian genomes, offers an excellent training opportunity in mouse metabolic phenotyping. The course will be run by the German Mouse Clinic (GMC) based at the Helmholtz Centre Munich (https://www.mouseclinic.de/index.html), and will cover state of the art phenotyping assays used in the energy metabolism, diabetes, clinical chemistry and pathology screens of the GMC. All assays are routinely applied in systemic phenotyping projects of the GMC, and in part also in the phenotyping pipeline of the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC). The course will be run by highly experienced scientists of the GMC, and involve presentations and extensive discussions of assays, experimental design and data analyses.
INFRAFRONTIER service charges will be changing as of 01 August 2016. New pricing will be posted and take effect as of 01 August 2016.
We will honor previously quoted rates for registrations of interest (ROI) and projects with ongoing services initiated prior to 01 August. Projects initiated after 01 August will be quoted and billed with the new rates.
On 28 and 29 June the INFRAFRONTIER Industry & Innovation Workshop took place in Munich. 88 participants from Europe, North America, Asia and Australia, among them 23 representatives from industry, discussed technological innovations, how biopharma uses mammalian models in drug discovery and how the resources and services provided by the INFRAFRONTIER Research Infrastructure and the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC) can support translational research.
The next issue of the Journal ‘Mammalian Genome’ will be dedicated to the study of ageing and age-related diseases. It contains an overview article on INFRAFRONTIER as a European resource for studying the functional basis of human disease. The article highlights the platforms and resources that INFRAFRONTIER provides for ageing research, an more generally how INFRAFRONTIER promotes the global sharing of high-quality resources and data and thus contributes to data reproducibility and animal welfare.
Scientists at Helmholtz Zentrum München (HMGU), in collaboration with the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), have shown that diet-induced obesity and diabetes can be epigenetically inherited by the offspring via both the oocytes and the sperm.
The results were published in Nature Genetics and have received broad international media attention.
INFRAFRONTIER will be present at the ISTT 13th Transgenic Technology Meeting, March 20-23, Prague, Czech Republic.
You are welcome to visit us at stand 25 and learn more about INFRAFRONTIER!
The European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) officially launched its Roadmap 2016 Report on an event held in Amsterdam on 10 March 2016 organised under the Dutch EU Presidency.
The Report lists 29 “ESFRI Landmarks”, one of them is INFRAFRONTIER. ESFRI Landmarks are research infrastructures that were implemented or started implementation before 2015 and are now considered “major elements of competitiveness of the European Research Area”.
GEMM-ESC protocol published in EMBO Molecular Medicine last year, the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) presented a strategy for rapid analysis of gene function in mouse models by deriving and modifying embryonic stem cells (ESC) from validated genetically engineered mouse models (GEMM), the so-called GEMM-ESC strategy.
The INFRAFRONTIER GmbH has opened postitions. If you are a highly-motivated person and want to leave your mark in a small and innovative team, please check our job advertisements.
INFRAFRONTIER is partner in two new Horizon 2020 projects that started on 01 September: CORBEL and RItrain.
CORBEL brings together the ESFRI Biological and Medical Research Infrastructures (BMS RI) to develop common services and harmonised access procedures to facilitate groundbreaking interdisciplinary research in the area of the life sciences. Together, the BMS RI cover the entire range from the discovery of basic biological mechanisms to applied medical translation.
Mutant mouse strains generated and phenotyped by the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium are made available to the research community via public repositories, mostly as cryopreserved sperm or embryos. To ensure the quality of this frozen resource there is a requirement that for each strain the frozen sperm/embryos are proven able to produce viable mutant progeny, before the live animal resource is removed from cages.
A course on primary phenotyping of mouse embryos will take place at the Institute Clinique de la Souris, November 25-27, 2015.
The course is aimed at providing a theoretical and practical background knowledge destined for researchers and engineers that are willing to acquire primary expertise in mouse development. The topics will cover dissection of post implant embryos, histology, whole mount Lac Z staining and confocal imaging of whole embryos.
On July 21-22, INFRAFRONTIER IPAD-MD project was kicked-off, in a two-day meeting in Munich, Germany.
The function of the majority of genes in the mouse and human genomes remains unknown. The mouse embryonic stem cell knockout resource provides a basis for the characterization of relationships between genes and phenotypes. The EUMODIC consortium developed and validated robust methodologies for the broad-based phenotyping of knockouts through a pipeline comprising 20 disease-oriented platforms. This consortium developped new statistical methods for pipeline design and data analysis aimed at detecting reproducible phenotypes with high power.
Reproducibility: Use mouse biobanks or lose them, Nature | Comment 10 June 2015 Kent Lloyd, Craig Franklin, Cat Lutz & Terry Magnuson Now that genetic engineering of mice is so easy, centralized repositories are essential, argue Kent Lloyd and colleagues.
The IPAD-MD project, Research Infrastructures for Phenotyping, Archiving and Distribution of Mouse Diseases Models, will address the coordination and cooperation between INFRAFRONTIER and complementary research infrastructures world-wide contributing to the global effort of IMPC, has been funded under the EC Horizon 2020 Programme.
The INFRAFRONTIER GmbH is hiring. If you are a highly-motivated person and want to leave your mark in a small and innovative team, please check our job advertisements.
The course is intended to give animal technologists hands-on experience of the murine embryo and spermatozoa freezing techniques routinely used at Harwell. In addition, delegates will gain experience of a simple and robust in vitro fertilization procedure.
The Workshop Mouse Microbiota will take place on 26 – 27 March 2015 at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, Portugal.
On 17-19 March 2015, a training course on primary phenotyping of mouse embryos will take place at Institute Clinique de la Souris, Illkirch, France.
The course is aimed at providing both theoretical and practical background knowledge targeted at researchers and engineers, willing to acquire primary expertise in mouse development. The topics will cover dissection of post implant embryos, histology, whole mount Lac Z staining and confocal imaging of whole embryos.
EURORDIS, the alliance of European patient organisations for rare diseases, campains for a European Year on Rare Diseases 2019. This should raise awareness for the 30 million Europeans who suffer from a rare disease and encourage research that focuses on these rare, mostly unknown, seriously debilitating and often life-threatening diseases.
INFRAFRONTIER, provider of resources and services for rare diseases research, strongly supports the EURORDIS campaign.
On 19 November 2014 the Council of the INFRAFRONTIER GmbH met in Munich for its third regular meeting. The Council discussed and approved the work programme, budget and the overall scientific strategy for the INFRAFRONTIER GmbH in 2015.
A publication describing the INFRAFRONTIER service portfolio and the web portal that gives access to all of them has been accepted for the next Database Issue of Nucleic Acids Research. Advance access is available on the NAR webpage.
The management system of German Mouse Clinic has been successfully audited and certified by TÜV SÜD according to the Quality Management System Standards EN ISO 9001: 2008.
Reproducibility and traceability of analytical data, documentation, transparency and continuity are the cornerstones of the German Mouse Clinic quality management system. The certification reflects the German Mouse Clinic commitment to promote research activities at the highest level in science and scientific standards.
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Cryoport, Inc. the only end-to-end cryogenic logistics solutions provider, entered into an agreement with the European Mouse Mutant Archive (EMMA), a part of INFRAFRONTIER, the European Research Infrastructure for phenotyping and archiving of model mammalian genomes
enOway guarantees freedom to operate (FTO) and offers important time gain in conditional knockout development time for industry scientists.
From 20 to 24 October 2014 the CNR Monterotondo and The Jackson Laboratory offer a comprehensive course on cryopreservation of mouse embryos, sperm and ovaries. The course is financially supported by the EC FP7 Capacities Specific Program through the INFRAFRONTIER-I3 project.
On 07 May 2014 the Council of the INFRAFRONTIER GmbH met in Munich. This was the first meeting of the Council after the accession of France, Czech Republic, Finland and Greece to the INFRAFRONTIER GmbH on 05 December 2013.
The INFRAFRONTIER IMPC workshop: Promoting the international exchange of mouse mutant resources, took place in Munich, Germany, 08-09 May 2014.
The main objectives of the workshop were to discuss how to simplify the international exchange of mouse mutant resources and to define the procedural changes to achieve it, to review the key issues facing the mouse community and mouse repositories as well as focus on IP issues and to present best practices in sharing research tools
The INFRAFRONTIER IMPC Phenotyping Workshop took place in San Francisco, California, USA, 19 – 20 March 2014, attracting the participation of around 60 international delegates.
The main aims of the Phenotyping Workshop were to assess tests, progress and phenotype detection, as well as to discuss the test implementation for IMPC Phase II.
The Phenotyping Workshop was funded through the INFRAFRONTIER InfraCoMP Project.
Second phenotyping call of the EC FP7 funded INFRAFRONTIER-I3 project open until March 15, 2014.
A total of 22 mouse mutant lines can be characterised through a broad based primary phenotyping pipeline in all the major adult organ systems and most areas of major human disease.
In a formal act authenticated by a notary in Munich, four founding members acquired shares of the INFRAFRONTIER GmbH: the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) from France, the Biomedical Sciences Research Center ‘Alexander Fleming’ from Greece, the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Acedemy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, and the University of Oulu in Finland.
On 02 to 04 December, INFRAFRONTIER holds an international workshop in Rome, together with the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC) and the International Knockout Mouse Konsortium (IKMC). More than 200 participants will participate.
The aim of the Rome meeting is to discuss how researchers from different scientific fields and from industry can benefit from the large-scale mouse genomics initiatives INFRAFRONTIER, the IMPC and the IKMC, and to obtain feedback from the research community on future needs and improvements.
The meeting is funded through the EC-funded projects InfraCoMP and EUCOMTOOLS, the Italian National Research Council (CNR) generously provides the meeting venue.
The aim of this INFRAFRONTIER training course held from 20 to 22 Novembeer 2013 at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain is capacitating participants to localize and to interpret the most common skeletal morphological abnormalities found in mutant mice. This will occur in the context of dedicated learning sessions devoted to the study of bone anatomy and the methodologies (X-ray, CT, Alizarin staining, etc) used to visualize the mouse skeleton. Each lecture will be followed by a practical session in which participants will work with real bone specimens and CT images.
From 21 to 25 October 2013 the CNR Monterotondo and The Jackson Laboratory offer a comprehensive course on cryopreservation of mouse embryos, sperm and ovaries. The course is financially supported by the EC FP7 Capacities Specific Program through the INFRAFRONTIER-I3 project.
FP7 funded INFRAFRONTIER-I3 project (2013-2016) supports eligible customers with a free of charge mouse production service implemented as a Transnational Access (TA) activity providing a total of 30 access units. The access unit is defined by the production of a minimum of two heterozygous mice carrying the targeted gene allele of choice from the corresponding validated gene-targeted ES cell clone(s).
INFRAFRONTIER project was included in a selection of ESFRI projects, currently in implementation phase, to feature in the ESFRI brochure on ‘European Research Infrastructures with global impact’, published for the 10th anniversary of ESFRI. With the publication of this brochure, ESFRI intents to make the general public more broadly aware of the ESFRI itself and of the goals of the different ESFRI Research Infrastructures.
