Informatics, Coordination and Service Center for the Mutant Mouse Resource and Research Centers

NIH RePORTER · NIH · U42 · $835,436 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY – OVERALL The Mutant Mouse Resource and Research Centers (MMRRC) is the NIH’s premier repository for the cryopreservation and distribution of genetically engineered and spontaneously mutated mouse alleles held as live mice, germplasm, and embryonic stem and other cell lines. The MMRRC’s four breeding and distribution facilities at UC Davis (CA), UNC Chapel Hill (NC), UM Columbia (MO), and The Jackson Laboratories (ME) are centrally organized through the Informatics, Coordination and Service Center (ICSC), which maintains the MMRRC’s web presence and provides customer service to the biomedical research community. As such, the ICSC is responsible for all MMRRC order processing, the coordination of strain donations, data curation, metrics, and the consortium’s public education & outreach campaign. The objective of this particular application is the continued operation of the ICSC at the UC Davis campus. This will be accomplished with three designated Cores that cater to MMRRC (1) Coordination, (2) Customer Service & Public Relations, and (3) Informatics. Each Core’s Project Lead will direct activities designed to expand the MMRRC’s operations and excellence. More specifically, the Coordination Core will facilitate internal as well as external MMRRC interactions and collaborations, manage technical staff, organize MMRRC exchanges with the ORIP/DPCPSI/OD/NIH Program Official, and coordinate progress reports as well as site visits. The Customer Service & Public Relation Core will act as the first point of contact for donation, data, and order inquiries from the research community, using web-based interaction as well as face-to-face representation at professional conferences in addition to targeted efforts to raise awareness of the MMRRC as a valuable research resource. The Informatics Core will be responsible for the development, implementation, expansion, and maintenance of the MMRRC website, the relational databases associated with all ICSC services, communication services hosted at the ICSC, metrics reporting, and the analytical marketing effort. The ICSC will furthermore engage an Applied Research Project examining the impact of the MMRRC on the research community at large, using supervised literature analyses. Under its current leadership, the ICSC- coordinated MMRRC consortium has increased its user base by >50%, nearly doubled its holdings, and orders reached an all-time high in 2019. This was accomplished by streamlining donation and order processing and through targeted social media and email campaigns with innovative, user-centered information technology. The ICSC operation at UC Davis is, hence, well suited for this funding opportunity’s purpose, namely to promote the MMRRC as the NIH go-to resource to ensure the highest standards of experimental design and quality control to optimize the reproducibility of mutant mouse research. This is significant because it caters directly to the NIH mission of promoting research to genera...

Key facts

NIH application ID
10878973
Project number
5U42OD010983-14
Recipient
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS
Principal Investigator
IAN F KORF
Activity code
U42
Funding institute
NIH
Fiscal year
2024
Award amount
$835,436
Award type
5
Project period
2011-07-01 → 2026-06-30