Consortium to ‘Build Better Mice’

BETHESDA, Md—Seeking better mice for research, the National Cancer Institute has funded the Mouse Models of Human Cancer Consortium, which will consist of 19 new research groups involving investigators at 30 US institutions. The teams will seek to create models that duplicate the ways human cancers develop, progress, and respond to therapies or preventive agents.

NCI expects the mouse models to aid in the discovery of new cancer-related genes and the pathways through which such genes exert their influence. The models eventually will be used to test experimental diagnostic and therapeutic techniques. Terry Van Dyke, PhD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Tyler Jacks, PhD, of MIT, serve as the consortium's co-leaders.