The
mouse that roared
(continued)
The
National Cancer Institute considers mouse biology so important that
last December the agency launched the Mouse Model of Human Cancers
Consortium. Nineteen new groups of investigators at more than 30
institutions in the United States received funding towards this
effort. Cardiff is working with Cory Abate-Shen, Ph.D., a researcher
at Rutgers University in New Jersey, on the nationwide project.
The
importance of transgenic mice is underscored by the Jackson Laboratory's
development of a new West Coast collaboration with UC Davis to produce
and maintain genetically customized mice. Jackson Laboratory is
the world's foremost nonprofit institution for mouse-based research.
The lab's distribution station at UC Davis will make mice available
faster and more conveniently to cancer researchers on campus and
throughout the western United States. It will also open the door
to new educational research programs.
"Genetically
engineered mice allow us to test the cancer-causing potential of
a particular gene, so we have a rational basis for developing treatments,"
says Cardiff. "So much of the rationale for current cancer
treatment boils down to, 'it worked.'"
Cardiff's
depth of knowledge on mouse biology has earned him an international
reputation. It helps that he's maintained a transgenic histopathology
laboratory in the Department of Pathology at UC Davis since 1990.
His archive of 8,000 animal cases drawn from 200 different strains
of mice is one of the most comprehensive repositories of genetically
engineered mice in the world.
More
than 200 investigators at 40 institutions in eight countries have
sought his opinion. Among the more than 8,000 animal cases he has
consulted on he has identified more than 1,600 breast cancers, 800
leukemias and lymphomas and hundreds of false positives.
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