The European Xenopus Stock Centre: a bioinformatically integrated molecular and animal resource

The European Xenopus Resource Centre was established in September 2006. Its function is to provide wild-type and genetically modified animals to the community of cell and developmental biologists who use the frog as a model for vertebrate development. This function is very important as it is difficult for animals to be easily transported from other countries and there are no commercial suppliers of such animals in the UK. It is also important since housing the animals on one site reduces the total number of animals that need to be looked after in laboratories across the UK, thus reducing the number of animals used in experiments which have to be reported to the Home Office. This proposal asks for funding to extend the objectives of the Centre. In particular the activities of the Centre need to be firmly embedded within a database which is heavily used as a resource by scientists researching on frogs (Xenbase, University of Calgary, Canada). This requires considerable expertise in database handling to write programmes to allow fields to be searched, and patterns of development and gene expression to be described. Using the same systems as Xenbase will ensure that it is easy to move between the Resource Centre and Xenbase sites, thus making use of both site's facilities. This integration of biological data into computer databases is known as bioinformatics. The second part of the proposal extends the range of materials that the Stock Centre will carry and distribute to scientists in the UK and worldwide. Developmental biology is the science which aims to understand how complex organisms arise from a single fertilised egg. Often this involves studying how, when and where genes are expressed in developing embryos and what happens if those genes are mis-expressed. We would like to carry cloned pieces of DNA in the Resource Centre that can be used for these experiments, describe them accurately and distribute them to scientists who want to use them. The outcome from funding this proposal would be the successful completion of a fully integrated resource to cell and developmental biologists to facilitate effective, economically and ethically efficient international class research.

The function of the Xenopus Resource Centre, established in September 2006, is to provide wild-type, mutant and transgenic animals to the community of cell and developmental biologists using X. laevis and X. tropicalis as model organisms to study vertebrate development. This function is of fundamental importance since there are currently no commercial suppliers in the UK and international carriage is extremely difficult. The Centre also has a significant animal welfare role (3R's) since housing the animals on one site reduces the total number of animals used in animal experimentation and develops best practice husbandry. This proposal asks for funding to extend the objectives of the Centre. In particular the activities of the Centre need to be firmly embedded within Xenbase, the database which underpins frog research with genomic and other resources. This requires a dedicated bioinformatician to write programmes which will allow the description of biological data in a searchable format. Developing these systems with Xenbase will ensure transparency between the Stock Centre and Xenbase sites, thus making use of both site's facilities and avoiding duplication of effort. Additionally, this application proposes to extend the range of materials that the Resource Centre will curate and distribute to scientists in the UK and worldwide. Cell and developmental biologists need a molecular tool kit consisting of expression clones, in situ probes and transgene constructs. These are time consuming to obtain from the originators and always require validation prior to their use. We propose that the Resource centre would obtain, hold, validate and QC such clones, and distribute them to scientists who want to use them. They would also hold a full length collection of ESTs from the IMAGE consortium, NIH, for distribution. In addition monoclonal and excess polyclonal antibodies and morpholinos would be distributed. The Resource Centre will provide a community resource.