The MRC National Mouse Genetics Network is a major new £22 million investment in mouse genetics for disease modelling that will capitalise on the UK's international excellence in the biomedical sciences.
The Network is comprised of seven challenge-led research clusters, with members distributed across the UK including Lancaster University.
Dr Neil Dawson from Lancaster University is a member of the MURIDAE (Modalities for Understanding, Recording and Integrating Data Across Early life) cluster, led by Professor Anthony Isles at the MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics at Cardiff University.
Dr Dawson said: "This aims to establish new approaches for studying the early postnatal period in mouse models of neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disease. The key to this will be linking changes in behaviour in early life with changes in brain development through integration of home-cage behavioural monitoring data with measures of brain structure and physiology, all guided by clinical partners to ensure relevance to human disease."
The Mary Lyon Centre at MRC Harwell will act as the central hub of the Network, sharing access to specialist facilities, resources, data, and training with all other Network members, and is receiving £5.5 million to support this role. The partnerships established by the Network will enable integration of basic science research with clinical findings in order to accelerate our understanding of human disease and translation to patient benefit.
Network Director Owen Sansom said: "We're excited to announce this first set of research clusters forming the MRC National Mouse Genetics Network and to synergising our efforts to deliver impactful preclinical science through comprehensive sharing of data, resources, and expertise.
"By building connections between researchers working in such diverse fields and through development of comprehensive data-sharing infrastructure, the Network will create a platform that better links mouse genetics research to clinical advances."
The other six cluster themes are: Cancer, led by Professor Karen Blyth at the CRUK Beatson Institute/University of Glasgow and Professor Louis Chesler at the Institute of Cancer Research, Congenital Anomalies, led by Professor Karen Liu at King's College London, Degron Tagging, led by Dr Andrew Wood at the MRC Human Genetics Unit at the University of Edinburgh, Haem, led by Dr David Kent at the University of York, Microbiome, led by Professor Fiona Powrie at the University of Oxford, and Mitochondria, led by Dr Robert Pitceathly at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology.
