Vervet Research Colony as a Biomedical Resource

描述(由申请人提供)：这是一份竞争性的续签申请，请求支持血统和基因分型的韦尔韦特研究群体(VRC)。VRC的结构是为NIH资助的研究人员提供机会，对构成人类健康负担的主要慢性、退行性和传染性疾病进行基因知情研究。VRC提供了用于表型鉴定或基因图谱的完整谱系、可在现场或非现场购买使用的单个猴子或群体，以及过去25年来从VRC派生的大量数据和组织仓库。这样的储存库不仅提供初步数据，而且设计用于新假设的生成和检验。为了鼓励最大限度地利用资源和相关的知识库，VRC教职员工参与了一项积极的校外招募科学家和项目的计划。四个具体目标是：1)保持病原体定义的谱系，使NLH支持的研究人员能够对与生物医学相关的性状进行连锁和关联研究，并在受控的环境和遗传条件下利用该谱系进行纵向或短期的表型研究；2)为NLH支持的研究人员提供动物购买，包括现场或非现场使用和试点调查；3)提供VRC作为平台，培训兽医和其他专业人员饲养和临床护理兽医；以及4)通过利用整合的遗传学和基因组学平台来确定神经行为(例如，奖赏敏感性)和心脏代谢(例如，肥胖及其后遗症)表型之间的生物机制，以丰富资源。目标4是应用程序的研究目标，并利用加州大学洛杉矶分校和世界反兴奋剂机构调查人员互补的科学技能，提高资源的价值，用于具有实质性翻译相关性的新颖、多系统的调查。上述目标旨在完全满足动物模型和生物材料资源基金(第40页)所要求的特征。 公共卫生相关性(由申请人提供)：马鞭草是神经遗传学研究、细胞系开发、疫苗测试、心脏代谢研究和猿猴免疫缺陷病毒调查的首选模型。马鞭草还模拟了许多在其他猴子身上研究的相同疾病，因此是一种替代生物医学物种。最后，预计Vervet将拥有第一个可用于任何非人类灵长类动物的全基因组、单核苷酸多态资源。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is a competing renewal requesting support for the pedigreed and genotyped Vervet Research Colony (VRC). The VRC is structured to provide NIH-funded researchers with the opportunity to conduct genetically informed studies of the chronic, degenerative, and infectious diseases comprising the majority of the human health burden. The VRC provides access to the complete pedigree for phenotyping or genetic mapping, to individual monkeys or groups that can be purchased for use on- or off-site, and to the extensive data and tissue repositories that have been derived from the VRC over the past 25 years. Such repositories not only provide preliminary data but are designed for novel hypothesis generation and testing. To encourage maximum use of the resource and associated repositories, the VRC faculty engage in a vigorous program of extramural recruitment of scientists and projects. The four specific aims are: 1) to maintain a pathogen- defined pedigree enabling NlH-supported researchers to conduct linkage and association studies in relation to biomedically relevant traits and to engage in longitudinal or short-term phenotypic investigations using the pedigree under controlled environmental and genetic conditions; 2) to provide animals for purchase by NlH-supported investigators, including options for on- or off-site use and pilot investigations; 3) to provide the VRC as a platform for training veterinarians and other professionals in the husbandry and clinical care of vervets; and 4) to enrich the resource by leveraging the integrated genetics and genomics platform to identify the biological mechanisms linking neurobehavioral (e.g., reward sensitivity) and cardiometabolic (e.g., obesity and its sequelae) phenotypes. Aim 4 is the research aim of the application and takes advantage of the complementary scientific skills of the UCLA and WFU investigators to enhance the value of the resource for novel, multi-system investigations with substantial translational relevance. The foregoing aims are designed to fulfill completely the characteristics required for an Animal Model and Biological Materials Resource Grant (P40). PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE (provided by applicant): The vervet is a model of choice for neurogenetic studies, the development of cell-lines, vaccine testing, cardiometabolic investigations, and the investigation of simian immunodeficiency virus. The vervet also models many of the same diseases studied in other monkeys and is therefore an alternative biomedical species. Finally, it is anticipated that the vervet will have available the first genome wide, single nucleotide polymorphism resource available for any nonhuman primate.