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RESEARCH PLAN |
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Principal Investigator/Program Director Williams, Robert W. |
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Problems and Issues Addressed In recent years there has been an explosion in the number of tools and techniques available to researchers interested in exploring the genetic basis of all aspects of CNS development and function. This program project focuses on new quantitative trait locus (QTL) methods that enable researchers to study any heritable trait—be it behavioral, pharmacological, or, as in our work, morphometric. Over the past two years, we have created the Mouse Brain Library (MBL) at < nervenet.org/mbl/mbl.html> in an ambitious attempt to provide high-quality histological material over the web for the purpose of mapping and ultimately cloning QTLs that modulate the architecture of the CNS. The MBL contains high-quality, uniformly processed sections from a variety of recombinant inbred, standard inbred, mutant, and outbred mouse strains, as well as from several F2 intercrosses and one very large advanced intercross. The MBL currently contains images of more than 600 brains, and we will expand this number at least three-fold over the course of the project (see Core A). Because the MBL serves as the linchpin for the other three parts of this program project, we aim to greatly expand its capabilities as described below.
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