General Information
EMBL is an inter-governmental organisation currently led by the Director General, Prof. Iain Mattaj, appointed by the EMBL Council. The Council is composed of all 20 member states and one associate member. Each member state is represented by up to two delegates, who may be accompanied by advisers.
Over the last years the EMBL Mouse Biology Unit based in Monterotondo (Rome), Italy, has been established as a basic research center of excellence and innovation in mouse genetics and functional genomics, to capture new opportunities and applications of mouse genetic manipulation and to become a hub for the international mouse research network. Alliances with other EMBL research units, neighbouring facilities in the European Mouse Mutant Archive (EMMA) and Italian national research (CNR) groups, and European academic research and clinical centers has resulted in the participation of EMBL with several EU-wide initiatives to establish an international research and information database, linking information on genetics/genomics, phenotyping/physiology and biomedical features.
The realisation of this new paradigm for translational research in the global context of the current mouse genetics/genomics explosion has relied on a focused research vision. A rapid expansion of basic research activities at the EMBL Mouse Biology Unit through faculty recruitment and infrastructural re-organization has retained the original emphasis on developmental mechanisms remains, with emerging foci on neurobiology and behaviour, regenerative biology and biomedical applications. New mouse translational research activities feature innovations in high throughput technology for genomic, proteomic and imaging analysis of mutant models. Continued refinement of conditional and inducible gene regulation will provide more accurate models of human pathologies, which form a resource of mouse-based disease models, reagents and technology fundamental to basic and clinical research in both European and international research centers.
Implementation of these objectives has been aided by aggressive fund raising for EMBL Mouse Biology Unit's predoctoral and postdoctoral training activities. External support through EU Integrated Project on Mouse Phenotyping (EUMORPHIA) and individual grants and fellowships has already been initiated, with continued submission of applications. Expert leadership has been recruited for the new EMBL mouse facilities, to provide advanced transgenic and knockout genotyping, rederivation, embryo and sperm cryopreservation, and mouse pathology services. Other centralized core facilities have been established, providing a wide array of applications to EMBL researchers (high throughput gene expression and histological analysis, FACs analysis, imaging/confocal microscopy, electron microscopy, monoclonal antibodies, viral vectors and other gene and cell delivery systems). Development of an EMBL-Monterotondo course curriculum, focusing on mouse genetic manipulation in collaboration with local faculty at CNR, EMMA, and participating Jackson Laboratories, reflects the EMBL longstanding tradition of transmitting new information and expertise. A dynamic seminar series and a visiting researcher program, together with active collaborations with external research groups throughout the world integrates the research efforts at Monterotondo with the international mouse biological community.
The next phase of activity at the EMBL Mouse Biology Unit will deliver powerful new tools for understanding mammalian physiology and for diagnosing and treating human disease. Refined spatio-temporal gene control (conditional/inducible techniques), new insights in pharmacogenetics (drugs/small molecules), standardized phenotyping protocols, and expanded interaction with clinical centres will be important for developing new animal models for advanced disease diagnosis and treatment. Increasing in vivo imaging capability for small animals will be necessary in close collaboration with interactive mouse atlas initiatives. Finally, development of appropriate bioinformatic tools and platforms to support increasingly complex data acquisition and interpretation will be an essential component for competitive advances in mouse translational research.
Prominent outcomes of the explosion in mouse biology at EMBL will include a deeper understanding of the role of genetic background including modifier effects, multigenic trait modeling, multivariate analysis of physiological changes (genes, hormones, nutrition, environment, psychology) genomic (chromosomics) versus epigenetic (deterministic/stochastic) factors. Medical applications will involve disease discovery and diagnostic tool development, predictive methods for congenital defect detection, adult disease models (late-onset pathology) and flexible testing platforms for drug discovery.