Conditional gene knockout

[2] It has increased scientists’ ability to study diseases, such as cancer, that develop in specific cell types or developmental stages.

Scientists used conditional gene knockout to delete the BRCA1 allele in mammary gland tissue in mice and found that it plays an important role in tumour suppression.

[3] A specific gene in mouse brain thought to be involved in the onset of Alzheimer's disease which codes for the enzyme cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) was knocked out.

For the past 100 years laboratory mouse genetics have been used for this because mice are mammals that are physiologically similar enough to humans to generate qualitative testing.

Along with producing similar phenotypes as well making them very promising candidates for conditional gene knockouts.

[8] The goal of KOMP is to create knockout mutations in the embryonic stem cells for each of the 20,000 protein coding genes in mice.

Both methods usually have a modified viral vector or a linear fragment as the mode of transportation of the artificial DNA into the target ES cell.

[9] Some alleles in this project cannot be knocked out using traditional methods and require the specificity of the conditional gene knockout technique.

[6] The KOMP project contributor, Oliver Smithies, arguably provided the biggest scientific impact on this gene targeting.

[7] The KOMP Repository provides incentives to those partaking in the projects to return feedback to them and those who meet specific criteria can be refunded 50% of the cost of their research cells.

Austin, C. P., Battey, J. F., Bradley, A., Bucan, M., Capecchi, M., Collins, F. S., Dove, W. F., Duyk, G., Dymecki, S., Eppig, J. T., Grieder, F. B., Heintz, N., Hicks, G., Insel, T. R., Joyner, A., Koller, B. H., Lloyd, K. C., Magnuson, T., Moore, M. W., Nagy, A., ... Zambrowicz, B.

Nobel Prize winner Dr. Oliver Smithies to deliver Earl H. Morris Endowed Lecture on July 10.