EMMA partner

MRC - Mammalian Genetics Unit, Harwell, UK

Harwell, DIDCOT
OX11 0RD
United Kingdom

The MRC-Harwell's Mammalian Genetics Unit (Director: Prof. Steve Brown) incorporates the MRC's Frozen Embryo and Sperm Archive (FESA) which is run by Dr. Martin Fray (Manager) and Dr. Amanda Pickard (Deputy manager). Established in the mid-1970s, FESA was set up to safeguard unique stocks of genetically altered mice and make them available to the global scientific community. The archive now contains over 1,300 stocks, comprising more than 424,500 embryos and also incorporates the Harwell-DNA archive; a collection of matched spermatozoa and tissue samples harvested from ~5,000 ENU mutagenised F₁ males. All these resources are available to the scientific community.

FESA is the sole public centre for archiving mouse embryos and spermatozoa in the UK and in this capacity it acts as a node for the EMMA consortium. The archive staff maintain strong links with all the major archiving centres around the world which aides the movement of mouse strains within the scientific community.

The Mammalian Genetics Unit is a partner in the PRIME, EUMORPHIA, EUROHEAR, ENFIN, DIABESITY, EUCLOCK, EUCOMM and EuReGene European Networks.

In March 2005 the Mary Lyon Centre (MLC) opened its doors at the MRC-Harwell. The MLC is a state of the art, high health status, animal facility housing ~60,000 mice and permits the MRC-Harwell to distribute mice with an SPF status.