Biology, immunology, toxicology and veterinary science -- what do they all have in common?

All use the technology available through Penn State's Transgenic Mouse Facility (TMF), Facility Director Cindy McKinney said.

Scientists at the TMF inject egg cells of laboratory mice with DNA or embryonic stem cells to create transgenic mice that are altered to meet certain research needs, McKinney said.

"The medical applications of the technology have grown exponentially since it has become available," she said.

Mice and rats are some of the only organisms whose genome has been completely sequenced besides humans, McKinney said.

This enables researchers to look at genes in mice and find the same gene in humans, she added.

"People have been studying mice for over a century," said Kenneth Weiss, the Evan Pugh professor of biological anthropology and genetics.

Because mice have been studied for so long and so much is known about their genetic makeup, they are an ideal organism for experimentation, Weiss said.

"Transgenic mice are excellent model systems because they are similar enough to humans," said Douglas Cavener, professor of biology and head of the biology department.

McKinney said that while working for the National Institute of Health, she researched a mouse model that was lacking a certain gene. She was able to show that the absence of this gene in humans led to Gaucher's disease, a chronic disorder of lipid metabolism, she said.

In Cavener's lab in the Life Sciences Building, transgenic mice are used to study the genes that might be potential precursors to diabetes, Cavener said.

The mouse models allow investigators to introduce mutations and look at what effects the genes will have on the genome of that mouse, and then to study what effects occur, McKinney said.

"In some experiments, you can't use cell cultures," Weiss said. In certain cases, it is imperative that the researcher be able to see the expression of the gene in a living organism to completely understand the effect of that gene, he said.

However, these experiments are highly regulated and have enormous amount of oversight, Cavener said.

"For example, if you wanted to feed a mouse a candy bar, there are very strict protocols that have to be followed," he said. "You have to write a long justification to Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)."

IACUC, located within the Office for Research Protections (ORP) at Penn State, is "charged with any university activity involving vertebrate animals," ORP Director Candy Yekel said.

IACUC consists of scientists, non-scientists, veterinarians and community members, she said.

"Anybody wishing to perform experiments must submit the animal care and use application to IACUC to ensure it is compliant with federal, state and local regulations," Yekel said.

IACUC conducts semi-annual reviews of the programs and sites that use transgenic mice, she said.

Jeff O'Neil, senior research technologist, manages the mouse colony for the Cavener lab. The colony consists of more than 1,000 mice -- one of the largest mouse colonies on campus, O'Neil said.

"The mice are better off being in the lab than in the wild because they get all the food they need," he said.

Cavener said it costs between $5,000 and $6,000 a month just to house the mice in his lab. This money is part of the lab's research expenditures, he said.

Researchers are not only regulated by IACUC, but also other organizations such as Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International -- a private, non-profit organization that promotes the humane treatment of animals, O'Neil said.

The labs on campus follow humane treatment guidelines such as using animals efficiently in experiments and exerting minimal pain to the animals, he said.

Cavener, who came to Penn State four years ago from Vanderbilt University, said there are many regulations to be followed when handling transgenic mice.

"It is much more complicated to move mice than your own family," he said.

McKinney said the technology is only limited by the types of experiments that researchers can envision.

The TMF, supported by the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, creates the mice so that researchers do not have to obtain them from suppliers outside the university, which would cost more and take longer, McKinney said.