How mice teach us about disease: Open access resource reveals new genes and pathways linked to human disease

"Researchers have created a large new resource of more than 900 genes switched off one-at-a-time in mice to discover which genes are important for a wide range of biological functions such as fertility or hearing.  This resource, known as the Mouse Genetics Project, screens for characteristics and early signs of disease, revealing many new functions for well-known genes, as well as for genes with no previously-known role in disease. Many of these variations in body function are likely to underlie human diseases.  The human genome has more than 20,000 identified genes, but our understanding of what they do and how disease results from their malfunction is quite limited. Studies using mice are central to understanding how genes function and how variation to genes causes disease. Mice share the vast majority of their genes with humans and researchers can use mice that have a specific gene switched off to start to unravel human disease.  The Mouse Genetics Project provides researchers and clinicians with a wealth of freely available clinical and biological information that will help find new treatment strategies and options for a wide range of diseases. Furthermore, research groups worldwide can use these new mouse lines to continue the work of investigating the fundamental mechanisms of disease, as the mouse lines are openly available to researchers.  'This resource is the largest collection of mouse lines available to researchers where all other genes are virtually identical except the gene switched off. Together with the careful optimisation of their environment and the systematic analysis of a wide range of characteristics in each line, we are able to detect features that otherwise would be missed.  So far the team have individually switched off more than 900 genes in mice to understand how they function and how they relate to disease. Rather than tunnelling in on one or two potential effects, the team are systematically studying a large number of potential outcomes to build an entire catalogue of gene functions and effects. The new report published today describes the detailed analysis of the first 250 lines to undergo this systematic health screen ..."