The EMMA (European Mouse Mutant Archive) and Mouse Clinic network infrastructures coordinate the production, phenotyping, cryo-preservation and distribution of mutant strains that model human diseases, with implementation of dedicated bioinformatics resources (www.emmanet.org).
EMMA was created by CNR nel 1996, with its central facility at the Monterotondo Campus, in collaboration with the most important European Institutions for biomedical research (CNRS,MRC,Karolinska Inst.,Gulbenkian Inst.,Helmholtz Zentrum-IEG,EMBL-EBI,Wellcome Trust-Sanger Inst.,ICS-IGBMC,CNB-CSIC,Fleming Inst.) and with financial support by the EU Framework Programmes.
EMMA and the Mouse Clinic networks ensure the production, primary phenotyping, cryo-preservation and distribution of more than 400 new mutant strains/year (more than 2500 strains made available so far), as new in vivo models of human genetic and multifactorial diseases.
EMMA and the Mouse Clinic develop in close collaboration with the International Consortia IMPC,IKMC,FIMRe-IMSR. They are key components of the INFRAFRONTIER project (www.infrafrontier.eu), which was selected by the European Roadmap for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) and related National Roadmaps, as a crucial distributed infrastructure for the current and future development of the European biomedical research (see: Mattaj and Tocchini-Valentini, Nature, vol.447, 377-378,2007).
INFRAFRONTIER is specifically organizing two complementary and linked infrastructure networks (ARCHIVEFRONTIER and PHENOMEFRONTIER) for large-scale and comprehensive production, phenotyping and archiving of mouse models, serving the European genetics and biomedical research community for the benefit of human health.
INFRAFRONTIER integrates 15 European Institutions with exceptional track records to implement and run large-scale biomedical research infrastructures. It builds on existing networks under EMMA, EUMODIC and other current projects of the EU Framework Programmes and forms a coalition with a significant number of funding agencies to develop the prerequisites to a common European infrastructure.
Focus