Coordinating and Bioinformatics Unit for the Mouse Mod*

DESCRIPTION (Provided by Applicant): The mouse models of diabetic complications consortium (MMDCC) will bring together a number of projects representing a diverse set of disciplines and technologies with the goal of improving or creating mouse models of human diabetes complications. The primary goal for this consortium will be the creation of the animal models to study diabetes complication pathologies with an emphasis on the etiology, prevention and treatment of the disease. The secondary goal is to use these animal models to elucidate the role of specific genes or chromosomal regions in the pathogenesis of these complications. The consortium will consist of five to six Mouse Engineering and Phenotyping units and one Coordinating and Bioinformatics unit. Members of the MMDCC will come from a diverse set of backgrounds with expertise in mouse genetic engineering technologies, organ pathologies, genomic technologies and diabetic complications. Investigators will focus their research efforts on a number of diabetic complications involving different organ systems and biochemical pathways. These complications will include diabetic kidney disease, vascular disease, retinopathy, neuropathy and diabetic cardiomyopathy. This complex research initiative will provide a valuable resource to the scientific community and will require the coordinated effort between the members of the consortium. The organization of this effort will primarily be the responsibility of the Coordinating and Bioinformatics unit (CBU) of the MMDCC. The CBU will provide the personnel and computing infrastructure for the participants in the consortium. Members of this unit will provide support for the consortium?s yearly meetings as well as mouse model data entry & retrieval. The CBU will require the creation of the bioinformatics computing infrastructure to store and maintain the data generated by the consortium. This proposal will specifically address the creation of this infrastructure as well as the administration of the coordinating unit. Specifically, we will 1) Design and Create the Bioinformatics Computing Infrastructure for the Mouse Models of Diabetic Complications Consortium and 2) Develop the Coordinating Unit infrastructure for the MMDCC.