| The
Transgenic Mouse Facility, a shared resource of the Duke
Comprehensive Cancer Center, provides services for the production
of designer mutations in mice. The facility specializes in
microinjection of foreign DNA into fertilized mouse embryos,
as well as skills successful gene targeting experiments using
pluripotent embryonic mouse stem cells. Gene targeting
experiments, which utilize homologous recombination of
specific endogenous genes at a site specific location, can
produce a plethora of mutations.
Ten years ago most targeting strategies were designed to
create null mutations in the mouse. Breeding to homozygosity
produces a "knockout" animal, with unique insight into the
function of the gene. In the past few years the facility has
assisted in sophisticated mutations that have provided
other avenues of inquiry into gene function. Large deletions,
point mutations, conditional mutations, and gene exchanges
(knock-ins) have been carried out. |
GENE LINKED
TO INFERTILITY IN MICE
A cell biologist at Duke University Medical Center has published
a new study in mice that offers another possible genetic
explanation for infertility in men: a gene called miwi.
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MANUFACTURING MICE
Masked, capped, gowned, and gloved, Lin Allsbury plucks and
places with practiced dexterity the wriggling pink baby mice
from one clear plastic bin to another.
More ... |
