Tumor Suppressor Inhibits Cell Growth Aug 9, 2008
Knockout mouse models of Sestrin1 and 2 will be an important tool for studying their role in carcinogenesis, according to the researchers. Karin adds that small molecules that mimic the molecular actions of the Sestrins can be used to control cell metabolism and regain control over cancer cells that have lost their p53. (Science Daily)
Isle doc helps find gene that hunts cancer Apr 19, 2008
"Basically what we did was created a mouse, called a 'knockout mouse,' which was missing a copy of ASPP2 ... which made it more susceptible to forming cancer -- at least that was our hypothesis," said Acoba, who cared for the mouse colony and performed necropsies to identify the tumors. He also ran the statistics and the survival curves to show the statistically significant difference between the two colonies in the rate of tumor formation. (Honolulu Star-Bulletin)
2-way cell talk provides clues about neuromuscular disease Feb 18, 2008
To find out what that signal is, his lab is comparing genetic expression in the beta-catenin knockout mouse to that of a normal mouse to see which genes are up- or down-regulated. Those genes may be targeted by beta-catenin and may serve as this retrograde signal. (EurekAlert!)
* NTU discovery may help cardiovascular, cancer experiments Jan 31, 2008
Lin Shu-hua (LQ), a professor at the university's Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences and Medical Biotechnology, said her research team's discovery came from experiments with the "knockout mouse" technique, which uses a mouse that has had the function of one or more of its genes deleted or made non-functional, to study the correlations of genes and diseases ... The knockout mouse technique has the greatest potential in the field. (Taipei Times, Taiwan -- World)
How The Brain Regulates Blood Flow To Neurons: Powerful Enzyme Could Play Key Role In Alzheimer's Disease Jan 19, 2008
"In the knockout mouse, blood flow in that area did not change as much upon whisker stimulation confirming that tPA is necessary to boosting local blood flow," Dr. Iadecola says. But how was tPA working, exactly. (Science Daily)
Body weight influenced by thousands of genes Jan 15, 2008
To obtain an estimate of how many genes contribute to body weight, the Monell researchers surveyed the Jackson Laboratory Mouse Genome Database for information on body weights of knockout mouse strains. Knockout mice have had a specific gene inactivated, or "knocked out. By studying how the knockout mice differ from normal mice, researchers obtain information about that genes function and how it might contribute to disease. Mice can provide valuable information on human disease because they... (EurekAlert!)
Study helps explain how allergic reactions are triggered Jan 15, 2008
With the identification of this long-elusive gene, we were able to create a knockout mouse that lacked CRACM1, and [as predicted] these animals proved to be resistant to various stimuli that usually cause severe allergic reactions, she explains. Further experiments demonstrated that mast cells removed from the CRACM1 knockouts were not able to take in calcium, and therefore, were unable to provoke allergic responses when they were exposed to allergens. (EurekAlert!)
Fragile X Syndrome Corrected in Mice Dec 21, 2007
"This is a very important paper that demonstrates a remarkable rescue of fragile X features when the knockout mouse is crossed with a mGluR5-deficient mouse," said Dr. Randi Hagerman, a professor of pediatrics and medical director of the M.I.N.D. Institute at the University of California, Davis ... "Although there was good evidence for this treatment in the trial of mGluR5 antagonists in the knockout mouse [lacking FMRP] and other animal models of fragile X, this genetic evidence further... (MEDLINEplus)
Profile: Innate ability Nov 22, 2007
With keen immunological insight and a knockout mouse 'factory', Shizuo Akira leads by quiet example. David Cyranoski visits the world's most-cited scientist as he prepares to run one of Japan's premier research centres. (Nature News Service)
Type 2 Diabetes: Inflammation, Not Obesity, Cause Of Insulin Resistance Nov 8, 2007
With this procedure, bone marrow was transplanted from a global JNK1 knockout mouse (lacking JNK1 in all cell types) into a normal mouse that had been irradiated to kill off its endogenous bone marrow. This resulted in a chimeric mouse in which all tissues were normal except the bone marrow, which is where macrophages originate. (Science Daily)
Plasmid with Stacey Singer Oct 19, 2007
That is because it has gone to three men who developed widely used tools for manipulating genes and studying what they do, a tool known as a knockout mouse. The winners have used the mice to make landmark discoveries about disease, genetics and basic biology; discoveries which have probably benefited you or someone you know. (The Palm Beach Post)
Nobel prize for scientist who gave the world the knockout mouse Oct 10, 2007
Animals' DNA modified to develop human diseases Technique used to test new drug therapies. Ian Sample, science correspondent. (Guardian Unlimited)
Nobel Prize For Medicine Goes To Scientists Working In UK And US Oct 9, 2007
(A "knockout mouse" is a genetically engineered mouse that has had a specific gene switched off) ... Since then the number of knockout mouse strains that are available has risen exponentially and the technology has advanced enormously. (Medical News Today)
Capecchi, Smithies and Evans share the Nobel Oct 9, 2007
"It was a nice finale to a life's work." Since the first knockout mouse publications in 1989, the technique has become ubiquitous in mammalian biology, allowing researchers to investigate gene function and to create animal models for diseases. "People have been expecting this since the 1990s," said Jeremy M. Berg, director of The National Institute of General Medical Sciences. (The Scientist)
Mouse Model Pioneers Win Nobel Prize For Discoveries In Embryonic Stem Cells And DNA Recombination Oct 9, 2007
Birth of the knockout mouse the beginning of a new era in genetics ... Since then, the number of reported knockout mouse strains has risen exponentially. (Science Daily)
Mice Provide Important Clues To Obsessive-compulsive Disorder Aug 27, 2007
SAPAP3 knockout mouse has a raw bald patch on its face from compulsive grooming behavior. (Credit: Guoping Feng, Ph. (Science Daily)
Study identifies source of fever Aug 6, 2007
Saper and his colleagues created a knockout mouse in which the gene for the EP3 receptor which registers the presence of PGE2 could be removed in one part of the brain at a time. This was the first time that anyone has been able to remove the receptor at a single spot in the brain, says Saper. (EurekAlert!)
Increased Availability Of Genetically Altered Mice To Aid Studies Of Human Diseases Jun 28, 2007
8 million to establish and support a repository for its Knockout Mouse Project ... This initiative will ensure knockout mouse strains are made available to the research community in an economical and timely manner ... D., a program director at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), which is the administrative lead for KOMP. Establishing this final component of the Knockout Mouse Project is an important milestone in progressing toward our goal of making a comprehensive resource of... (Science Daily)
Check And Balance For Neuron Activity Provides Insight Into Schizophrenia, Seizures May 25, 2007
Now he wants to study disease processes in a neuregulin-1/ErbB4 knockout mouse and learn more about how neuregulin-1 mediates GABA release. Another key unknown is what regulates neuregulin-1. (Science Daily)
Minuscule Molecules Pack A Powerful Punch Apr 29, 2007
A role for a microRNA in the immune system has been shown by study of one of the world's first microRNA knockout mouse, reported in Science. The microRNA acts as a lynchpin to balance the response of immune defences and the researchers suggest the corresponding human gene will have a similar vital role. (Science Daily)
DNA damage repair defect unifies theories of aging Dec 24, 2006
DNA damage induces aging, but at a rate that is genetically determined, , head of the department of genetics at Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and colleagues determined after studying a patient with the disease as well as a knockout mouse model ... In the knockout mouse model of the disease, the researchers found a transcriptome profile at the age of 15 days that was similar to that of normally aged mice at 2 ... According to , who earlier this year a different knockout... (The Scientist)
Here Come the X-Mice Dec 22, 2006
The U.S. component of the multinational effort, the Knockout Mouse Project (KOMP), will target some 10,000 mouse genes, half the rodent's estimated complement. (Canadian and European researchers will tackle most of the rest. (Scientific American)
News in brief from Northern California Sep 8, 2006
Davis will be part of the National Institutes of Health's Knockout Mouse project, which calls on researchers to create thousands of gene-altered mice and study the outcome when certain genes are disabled ... But researchers say those efforts were poorly coordinated, partly because there was no easy way for them to share their mice, and they hope projects such as Knockout Mouse will save both time and money by linking multiple labs around the world. (Fresno Bee -- State)
UCD hopes to help build better mouse-gene model Jul 13, 2006
"They have a very good reputation one of top five in the world for genetically altered mice," said Colin Fletcher, director of the NIH Knockout Mouse Project, which it shortens to a name that sounds like a punch: KOMP. ... The duplicated effort is especially troubling, given how hard it is to make a single knockout mouse ... It can take one or two years or more and cost anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000 to produce a knockout mouse able to pass its new genetic trait reliably on to its offspring. (Sacramento Bee)
CCMB identifies milk gene May 10, 2006
The effects of the absence of the particular gene on this knockout mouse would in turn reveal its function, said Satish Kumar, who heads the Facility for Transgenic and Gene Knockout Mice at CCMB. ... As this had huge potential, the CCMB started the National Facility for Transgenic and Gene Knockout Mouse in collaboration with the department of science and technology at a cost of Rs 2 crore. (India Times, India -- Health/Science)
New Research Demonstrates Bone-marrow Derived Stem Cells Can Reverse Genetic Kidney Disease Apr 30, 2006
Using a mouse model of the disease, in which COL4A3 -- one of the three type IV collagen genes that is mutated in Alport patients -- had been removed, the researchers transplanted allogenic bone marrow into the knockout mouse. According to Kalluri, within a period of about four weeks, the investigators found that approximately 10 percent of the transplanted cells had incorporated into the damaged regions of the kidney glomeruli in the knockout mouse, emerging as healthy renal cells (podocytes... (Science Daily)
Understanding Cell Death May Bring New Life To Kidney Treatment Apr 16, 2006
A Bid knockout mouse model, developed at the University of Pittsburgh, helps illustrate the synergism. Without Bid, there is less apoptosis while kidney function and survival rates significantly improve. (Science Daily)
Deltagen Reports 2005 Full-Year Consolidated Financial Results Mar 29, 2006
NIH Contract Award: In September 2005, the NIH awarded Deltagen a three-year contract under which Deltagen will provide selected knockout mouse lines and related phenotypic data to the NIH. The NIH is permitted to make the knockout mouse lines available to academic institutions for their research use. Deltagen retains exclusive rights to provide its knockout mouse materials to commercial entities ... On September 30, 2005, the NIH placed an initial delivery order for 129 knockout mouse lines,... (CNBC -- Research Alerts)
Mighty expensive mice for sale Mar 14, 2006
For example, if researchers found a knockout mouse that stayed skinny no matter how much it ate, they would immediately have a promising target for an obesity drug. "You can manipulate the genes ... and use the mouse as a translator of mammalian physiology," said Brian Zambrowicz, executive vice president of research at Lexicon Genetics. (CNN -- Science)
Mice Are Key Tool in Quest for New Drugs Mar 5, 2006
The Knockout Mouse Project would record information about the characteristics of each strain in an enormous public database that would allow researchers to link genes with their functions ... For example, if researchers found a knockout mouse that stayed skinny no matter how much it ate, they would immediately have a promising target for an obesity drug. (Herald Sun)
