VERVET RESEARCH COLONY AS A BIOMEDICAL RESOURCE

描述（由申请人提供）：部分由于其作为恒河猴的替代生物医学物种的效用，NCRR于2005年开始通过P40机制支持加勒比起源的UCLA/VA Vervet研究殖民地（VRC） （RR 019963）。P40拨款的四个目标是：1)为美国国立卫生研究院资助的研究人员增加家养的、定义明确的长尾猪的供应；2)维护和提供获得纯种群体的途径，用于生物医学遗传学研究；3)提供照料和管理长尾猪的培训和信息；4)支持继续使用马尾鼠进行遗传、行为和神经生物学研究，同时开发新的马尾鼠模型，用于研究影响美国公众健康的主要疾病。为了增加种群的可达性和多类别使用，VRC于2008年1月搬迁到维克森林大学灵长类动物中心，在那里它被并入维克森林大学转化科学研究所，并与加州大学洛杉矶分校的Semel研究所继续合作。为了进一步促进实现最初的具体目标，本修订申请建议通过以下三个活动来增强VRC的资源基础设施：1)确定VRC的病原体状态，消除那些对菌落健康构成最大威胁的实体和对生物医学研究的潜在干扰；2)通过优化创建选定的淋巴母细胞系的程序来增强资源的遗传和基因组成分；3)启动一项旨在识别和确定繁殖失败原因的计划，从而提高资源的生产力，并确定潜在的新动物发展模式。这些活动产生的信息将被添加到现有的、完全可访问和可搜索的数据存储库中，该存储库包含VRC中每种动物的整个临床和研究历史。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Owing in part to its utility as an alternative biomedical species to the rhesus monkey, the NCRR began supporting the Caribbean-origin, UCLA/VA Vervet Research Colony (VRC) through the P40 mechanism in 2005 (RR 019963). The four aims of the P40 grant are to: 1) increase the supply of domestically-reared, well-defined vervets for NIH-funded investigators; 2) maintain and provide access to the pedigreed colony for biomedical genetics research; 3) provide training and information on the care and management of vervets; and 4) support continued use of vervets for genetic, behavioral, and neurobiological research while developing new vervet models for research on the major diseases adversely affecting public health in the United States. To increase accessibility and multi-categorical use of the colony, the VRC relocated in January 2008 to the Wake Forest University Primate Center where it was incorporated into the Wake Forest University Translational Science Institute in continued partnership with the Semel Institute of UCLA. To further facilitate achievement of the original specific aims, this revision application proposes to enhance the resource infrastructure of the VRC through three activities: 1) define the pathogen status of the VRC and eliminate those entities presenting the greatest threats to colony health and potential confounds to biomedical research; 2) enhance the genetic and genomic components of the resource by optimizing procedures for creating selected lymphoblastoid cell lines; and 3) initiate a program designed to identify and determine the cause of reproductive failure, thereby improving productivity of the resource and identifying potential new animal models for development. The information generated by these activities will be added to an existing, fully accessible and searchable data repository that incorporates the entire clinical and research history of every animal in the VRC. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE (provided by applicant): The foregoing activities are entirely supportive of the aims articulated in the 2009-2013 NCRR strategic plan. These include the needs to expand and ensure the development of and access to animal models, to create a "knowledge environment" allowing researchers to find out what disease model resources exist and their utility for the study of various diseases, and to further integrate biological material resources with clinical and translational research.