The University of California, Davis, will play a key role in a new worldwide effort to create a so-called “knockout” mutant mouse for each of the approximately 20,000 genes in the mouse genome. These mice can be used to study the function of specific genes and to create models of human disease, ranging from growth and development to cancer, obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
The group plans to create lines of embryonic mouse stem cells in which 5,000 individual genes will be systematically turned off, or “knocked out.” Those embryonic stem cells will then be used to breed live mice that lack those genes.