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Report of the NIH Rat Model Repository
Workshop
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Objectives
of the NRGRC
To serve as a national, central resource that will
select, maintain, distribute, and preserve genetically defined rats.
To coordinate the extramural NRGRC activities with
the intramural NIH Genetic Resource (NGR).
To develop a cost-effective central resource that
will maintain the maximum number of strains without compromising the quality of
strains.
To establish criteria of strain selection,
preservation, and distribution of genetically defined rats to the research and
supplier communities.
To facilitate and implement the establishment of
standards for genetic, phenotypic, and microbiological monitoring.
To participate in the development of new genetic
technologies, e.g., embryonic stem cell production, nuclear transfer, etc.,
that will improve the function of the NRGRC and be disseminated to the
scientific community.
To provide relevant information to the scientific
community via a Web page that interfaces with other rat databases and to
develop a data management system that serves the internal needs of the Center.
To institute an Advisory Board to oversee the
operation and activities of the NRGRC, to set broad policy guidelines, and to
report to the appropriate NIH designee.
To provide training to the research community in
the various technologies and approaches used at the NRGRC.
To sponsor meetings to discuss various uses of the
rat in biomedical research and the developments in rat genetics and genomics.
Recommendations for the Development
of the NRGRC
To serve as a national, central resource that
will select, maintain, distribute, and preserve genetically defined rats.
The NRGRC should be a central resource located in a
setting that has a strong research environment. The structure must provide a
high level of genetic and health quality of research animals to be maintained
in a consistent manner. In addition, investigators will be able to obtain from
one source many different, well-characterized rat models.
The workshop participants carefully considered
minimal numbers of strains to be managed by the NRGRC. However, the purpose of
these numbers is more to set the direction and projected costs rather than to
set minimums. The participants are interested in having as many strains
maintained as possible. It is anticipated that a competitive solicitation for
the resource will enable investigators to develop the most cost-effective
strategies to maximize the number of strains maintained (cryopreserved and live
colonies for distribution) as well as the best way to develop cost-recovery
strategies. The NRGRC should have the capacity to provide a minimum of 200
well-characterized and standardized rat models by the end of a 5-year period.
The NRGRC should accept at least 50 new rat strains per year, rederive to
remove infectious agents, cryopreserve all strains, store aliquots of all
frozen embryos or gametes at an off-site facility, and distribute strains to
investigators. The NRGRC should maintain at least 44 strains per year as live
colonies for distribution with a daily census of more than 4,000 rats (existing
breeders, new breeders, and animals for distribution). While the size and
structure of the live colonies will ultimately be determined by the
investigators subscribing to the NRGRC, it would need to be cost-effective. For
example, the 44 strains maintained could be maintained as follows: 10 strains
maintained as breeding nuclei (5 breeding pairs), 32 strains (20 breeding
pairs) maintained as small expansion colonies, and 2 strains (100 breeding
pairs) maintained as large expansion colonies.
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