$1 million award to kill the cancer, not the patientNovember 24, 2009For cancer patients on chemotherapy, the "cure" can be as deadly as the disease itself. Adverse drug reactions are one of the leading causes of death among patients receiving cancer treatment. Jackson Laboratory Professor Gary Churchill wants to change that. With a new two-year, $1 million grant from the National Cancer Institute, Churchill is launching a radical new approach to testing three chemotherapeutic drugs for potential toxic effects.

Mapping the Dragon Genome
Fall 2009As part of the GeniQuest Educational Program, Scientists at The Jackson Laboratory have successfully mapped the genome of the dragon, pinpointing the genetic factors behind such traits as forked tails, webbed wings and the ability to breathe fire.

NIH award $8.6 million to establish a Center of Excellence to study underlying causes of psychiatric disorders
September 29, 2009 The National Human Genome Research Institute and the National Institute of Mental Health has named the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill a Center of Excellence in Genomic Science and awarded UNC $8.6 million over five years to fund a new Center for Integrated Systems Genetics, or CISGen.

Methods for constructing revolutionary mouse genotyping array
August 9, 2009In early 2009, The Jackson Laboratory began offering services using the JAX® Mouse Diversity Genotyping Array, the most advanced high-density mouse genome-wide profiling array available. The array was designed by Fernando Pardo-Manuel de Villena Ph.D., University of North Carolina, and Gary Churchill Ph.D., The Jackson Laboratory, both of The Center for Genome Dynamics, in cooperation with Affymetrix, and was funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. [ Press Release ]

Watch an interview of Professor Churchill answering the following questions:

• How did you choose the array’s SNPs? (4:08)
  
• How did you ensure the array’s reliability? (2:07)
  
• How are IGPs different from SNPs, and how will they increase the array’s utility? (4:23)
  
• What are some of the quality control measures you used to validate the array? (3:28)
  
• What will be some to the most important uses of the array? (2:41)
  
• How will the array help researchers identify genes associated with disease? (3:35)

Diversity Outbred and Collaborative Cross Mice to Offer Maximum Allelic Variation
Summer 2009In its quest to provide even more powerful genetically distinct mouse resources, JAX is developing a population of Diversity Outbred (DO) mice, designed to maximize allelic variation throughout the genome. Each DO mouse will be genetically unique, and groups of them will approximate the genetic diversity found in human populations.

Collaborative Cross to improve systems genetics analysis
Spring 2009 JAX Professor Gary Churchill helped design the Collaborative Cross. Genetic analysis is experiencing a new dawn — systems genetics, the study of the interactions among the genes in a biochemical pathway. A relatively new concept, systems genetics will help scientists better understand how genes function in the context of the entire biochemical pathway to which they belong. To realize the potential of systems genetics, researchers conducting mouse-based biomedical research will need new tools — tools that will allow them to better resolve Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) intervals and identify the underlying genes. The Collaborative Cross (CC) promises to be such a tool.

Mouse Diversity Genotyping Array Service launched utilizing array developed by Center researchers
February 12, 2009BAR HARBOR, Maine - The Jackson Laboratory now offers a new Mouse Diversity Genotyping Array Service utilizing an innovative genotyping microarray. Designed for high-density, genome-wide profiling of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), the array was developed in the laboratories of Drs. Fernando Pardo-Manuel de Villena (University of North Carolina) and Gary Churchill (The Jackson Laboratory), both of The Center for Genome Dynamics. This cutting-edge research tool, produced and sold by Affymetrix, provides more than 100 times the SNP coverage than any other available mouse array, permitting high resolution mapping and genomic analysis.

The Quick and the Bed – Center researchers second in Bar Harbor competition
November 22, 2008BAR HARBOR, Maine — Bed might sound like a good place to spend a snowy Saturday morning. But racing in that bed down Cottage Street? That’s even better — and silly, slippery fun.

Center High School Mentorships Praised
November 20, 2008If hands-on is the way to teach science, hands-on in a real scientist’s lab has got to be the ultimate, right? More programs think so, and they are finding ways to make in happen for high school students.

Randomization in laboratory procedure is key to obtaining reproducible microarray results
November 14, 2008The quality of gene expression microarray data has improved dramatically since the first arrays were introduced in the late 1990s. However, the reproducibility of data generated at multiple laboratory sites remains a matter of concern, especially for scientists who are attempting to combine and analyze data from public repositories. We have carried out a study in which a common set of RNA samples was assayed five times in four different laboratories using Affymetrix GeneChip arrays. We observed dramatic differences in the results across laboratories and identified batch effects in array processing as one of the primary causes for these differences. When batch processing of samples is confounded with experimental factors of interest it is not possible to separate their effects, and lists of differentially expressed genes may include many artifacts. This study demonstrates the substantial impact of sample processing on microarray analysis results and underscores the need for randomization in the laboratory as a means to avoid confounding of biological factors with procedural effects.

NCSSM Grad Chosen for Respected Science Internship
Summer 2008Bar Harbor, Maine—Elizabeth Derrhake, North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics class of 2008, has been selected to participate in this year’s installment of The Jackson Laboratory’s Summer Student Program. The prestigious program draws high school and undergraduate students to the coast of Maine for an intensive, hands-on learning experience. For eight weeks, Deerhake will study computational biology under the guidance of a staff scientist. Specifically, Elizabeth will be researching genes related to kidney disease and hypertension in Dr. Gary Churchill's laboratory, hoping to contribute to understanding of those conditions. "I'll be using statistics to determine likely locations for the genes," she explains.

MSSM Senior Chosen for Respected Science Internship
Summer 2008Bar Harbor, Maine—Ryan Keating, Main School of Science and Mathematics class of 2009, has been selected to participate in this year’s installment of The Jackson Laboratory’s Summer Student Program. The prestigious program draws high school and undergraduate students to the coast of Maine for an intensive, hands-on learning experience. For eight weeks, Keating will study bioinformatics under the guidance of a staff scientist. In Dr. Gary Churchill's lab, and with Dr. Randy Smith as a mentor, Ryan will be searching for genes that contribute to kidney disease and hypertension. Statistical analysis will provide Ryan with the likely locations for these genes.

Strains of laboratory mice more varied than previously thought
July 29, 2007CHAPEL HILL - A collaborative study by scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, has found that the genetic variation in the most widely used strains of laboratory mice is vastly greater than previously thought.

Inside the Lab-Mouse Factory
May 22, 2007How do complex networks of genes control obesity, cancer, and heart disease? The unique inbred rodents of the Jackson Laboratory may hold the answer.

High BMI doesn’t always spell obesity, Center researchers show
July 20, 2006 Bar Harbor, Maine - For years doctors have used the body mass index (BMI), a ratio of height and weight, to characterize the clinical weight status of their patients. The lower the number, the presumption goes, the leaner the person, and anyone with a BMI above 30 is characterized as obese and at high risk for the associated complications. But the BMI has come under scrutiny lately, and other techniques that measure how the weight is distributed on the body are thought to provide a better way to assess risk. Now a study in mice by scientists at The Jackson Laboratory indicates that the usefulness of the BMI is suspect even at the genetic level.

NIGMS Announces New Systems Biology Centers
March 30, 2006 Two new multidisciplinary centers have joined an ongoing effort supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to develop new strategies and tools for studying the complexity of biological systems. The centers will integrate experimental and computational approaches into research, technology development, and outreach programs. The findings from these projects will advance our understanding of basic biological processes and the role they play in human health.

Jackson Laboratory awarded $15.1M federal grant for new, "systems" approach to genetics researchMarch 30, 2006 Bar Harbor, Maine - A $15.1 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant has been awarded to a team of Jackson Laboratory researchers with a new, "systems" approach to studying the genetics of health and disease. The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) is awarding the five-year grant for $15,073,585 under a "National Centers for Systems Biology" program. The new center's goal: to understand how the 30,000 or so genes every human is born with interact to develop a healthy individual or lead to diseases.

The Collaborative Cross, a community resource for the genetic analysis of complex traitsNovember, 2004 The Complex Trait Consortium, a large international group of researchers, led by Senior Staff Scientist Gary Churchill, propose to develop a Collaborative Cross--a large collection of recombinant inbred mouse strains--in order to more efficiently identify study the genetics of complex traits. Dr. Churchill explains: "In a nutshell, the proposal is to take eight existing strains of mice, carefully selected for maximal diversity, and to shuffle their genomes together like a deck of cards. The result will be 1,000 new strains of mice that can be mated to produce as many as one million genetic combinations, providing a wealth of new models for human diseases."

Jackson Laboratory Awarded $892,530 Department of Defense Grant to Study Stress Fracture SusceptibilityOctober 16 , 2003 Bar Harbor, Maine- Basic training builds good military men and women, but it can also take a toll on their bones. Stress fractures are a leading cause of hospitalization in the U.S. military, increasing the time and cost of training and affecting military readiness. The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded The Jackson Laboratory a grant of $892,530 to study the genetic and physiological reasons some soldiers are more susceptible than others to stress fracture injuries.

Complex Rhythms June 29, 2001 One of the hopes of the Human Genome Project has been to unearth the genetic basis of complex traits and diseases. This will be an arduous task indeed if a new paper by Shimomura et al. is any indication. They have studied circadian rhythms by examining five aspects of a wheel-running behavior (period, phase, amplitude, activity level, and dissociation) in two strains of mice (BALB/c and C57BL/6) and in the first- and second-generation progeny of matings between the strains. Quantitative trait locus analysis uncovered 14 loci with significant effects. A subsequent genome-wide analysis for epistatic genetic interactions identified two locus pairs, differing from any of the 14 loci, that affect two of the parameters when occurring together but not when occurring alone. All but two of these loci were clearly different from the mammalian clock genes. Thus, the variation in circadian behavior is determined by the accumulated effects of and interactions between many genes, most of which do not encode the central role players of the behavior.

Genomics of salt-induced hypertension: Researchers identify chromosome regions of interest in mice, humans, and ratsFebruary 26, 2001 Researchers have taken the first steps toward identifying genes that make some mice susceptible to hypertension. Using genome scans and computational tools, the investigators located regions of mouse chromosomes likely to contain risk factors for the salt-sensitive form of the condition. The study identified corresponding regions of the human and the rat genomes, supporting the notion that a fundamental similarity exists across species and that pinpointing genes in rodents could lead researchers to blood pressure genes in humans.