Mice unravel new roles for DNA caretakers
Mice unravel new roles for DNA caretakers
In this issue
Feature
Better timelines
Latest publications
Frank’s blog
Timeline update
Mice unravel new roles for DNA caretakers
Mice make excellent models to study human medicine. Most people think of studies using mice to test for drug verification, however; mice can be just as useful in understanding how our own DNA works. Take, for instance, the role our DNA has in the occurrence of cancer.
Professor Kum Kum Khanna of the Signal Transduction Laboratory at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Herston, Queensland, Australia focuses on researching DNA caretaking systems and their impact on cancer susceptibility. She and her team specifically study DNA damage signalling and repair pathways in relation to cancer susceptibility by preventing DNA mutations. They have found that several genes involved in these pathways have been shown to contribute to breast cancers.
Professor Khanna and her team recently published two papers on generation and characterization of mouse models of the newly identified single-stranded DNA binding proteins, Ssb1 and Ssb2, originally discovered in her laboratory. The Ssb1 model revealed that it is essential for skeletogenesis and neonatal survival and its conditional deletion in adult mice led to development of tumours. However, mice with constitutive deletion of Ssb2 were both viable and fertile, and did not exhibit an increased cancer susceptibility. However, increased levels of Ssb1 in Ssb2 deleted tissues, and vice-versa in Ssb1-/- mice were noted. Together, these data suggest that Ssb1 and Ssb2 play overlapping roles in mouse tissue homeostasis and embryonic development.
For more information on Professor Khanna’s research, visit the QIMR Berghofer website and see the publication below.
For more information on Ozgene mouse models, please see Ozgene services.
Germline mice in 30 weeks
Ozgene recently finished a conditional knockout project in only 30 weeks, from vector design and construction to confirmation of heterozygous targeted germline mice. This was made possible by Ozgene’s continuous process improvements and the goGermline technology. Each newsletter will now keep you up to date on our timelines by showing our technical timeline, fastest project, and current average.
Latest publications
FASEB J. 2015 Apr 27. – Featured
Ssb2/Nabp1 is dispensable for thymic maturation, male fertility, and DNA repair in mice.
Boucher D, Vu T, Bain AL, Tagliaro-Jahns M, Shi W, Lane SW, Khanna KK. – QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute & University of Queensland, Australia; Institut National De La Recherche Agronomique, France. [read]
Mucosal Immunol. 2015 May 20.
Nuclear matrix protein SMAR1 control regulatory T-cell fate during inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Mirlekar B, Ghorai S, Khetmalas M, Bopanna R, Chattopadhyay S. – National Centre for Cell Science & DY Patil Institute of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, India. [read]
Frank’s blog – Measuring what you manage
With inventions such as the computer and the internet, data seems to be abundant. The data is there, in mass quantities. But how is all of that data useful if no one interprets it and shares the conclusions? Take for instance the opinion or myth that humans are overpopulating the Earth. What is this based on? Has anyone analysed the data? The answer is yes!
Technical timeline
When all processes produce the desired result first time, the timeline can be as short as 26 weeks.
Fastest project
Our fastest conditional KO project took 30 weeks from vector design to germline transmission.
Current average
The Simple Moving Average timeline of our recently completed projects is 36 weeks.
