A national mutant mouse repository network that enables researchers to donate and acquire mutant mouse strains has been established with funding from NCRR.

Officially called the Mutant Mouse Regional Resource Centers (MMRRC), the network consists of four repository-distribution facilities that are electronically linked through an Informatics Coordinating Center (ICC) at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine.

The four centers are:

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The University of California at Davis

Taconic Farms in Germantown, N.Y.

Harlan-Sprague Dawley, Inc., Indianapolis, in collaboration with the University of Missouri.

Each facility is generally equipped to cryopreserve embryos or gametes, rederive strains, and characterize the genetic and phenotypic makeup of the mutants.

The ICC provides database and other informatics support to the MMRRCs and serves as a single point of entry to the network for the research community at the website.

Researchers may also contact each MMRRC through Section B of the NCRR Comparative Medicine Resource Directory.

The network is now accepting genetic mouse strains for its collection and invites investigators who have created them to donate them.

For additional information, contact program head Franziska Grieder by e-mail or at at 301-435-0744.

Sponsored by NIAMS, NIAID, NIDDK, ORWH, the S.L.E. Foundation, and the Lupus Research Institute, the conference will explore extrinsic and intrinsic triggers of autoimmunity, SLE genetics, immunoregulatory mechanisms, mediators of tissue injury, and novel therapies.

Posters and workshops will cover basic mechanisms, clinical features and epidemiology, and outcome measures. A plenary will address SLE clinical trials. Registrants are invited to submit abstracts for poster and/or oral presentations related to these topics. The abstract deadline is November 27, 2001. For info on the meeting and abstract submission, call (202) 973-8680 or send an e-mail. A registration brochure is at this website.

A forum to discuss and answer questions about the program will be held on January 14 from 1:00–3:30 p.m. in Building 31C, 6th-floor Conference Rooms 6 and 10. General inquiries can be directed to Mary Elizabeth Mason at 301-435-1114.

The deadline for registering for the 2002 "Introduction to the Principles and Practice of Clinical Research" is January 4, 2002. The course will run from January 15, 2002, to April 23, 2002. Classes will be held on the NIH campus on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings from 5:30 p.m. to approximately 7:00 p.m. There is no charge for the course, but students must buy a textbook. Students will receive a certificate upon successful completion of the course and final exam. For additional information regarding coursework or to register, please visit the course website.

NIH-Duke Masters Program

Applications for the 2002-2003 NIH-Duke Training Program in Clinical Research are available in Building 10, Room B1L403.

Designed primarily for clinical fellows and other health professionals who are training for careers in clinical research, the program offers formal courses in research design, statistical and decision analysis, research ethics, and research management.

Courses for this program are offered at the Clinical Center by means of videoconferencing from Duke or on-site by adjunct faculty. Academic credit earned by participating in this program may be applied toward satisfying the degree requirement for a Master of Health Sciences in Clinical Research from Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, N.C.

Enrollment in this program is limited. The deadline for receipt of applications is March 1, 2002. Applicants who have been accepted into the program will be notified by July 1, 2002. Applications from both intramural and extramural divisions are encouraged.

For additional information regarding course work and tuition costs, please refer to the course website.

E-mail queries regarding the program may be addressed to program director William E. Wilkinson.

The Bethesda chapter of AWIS (Association of Women in Science), with support from ORWH, OD, and the Office of Community Liaison, announces the following seminar series:

Thursday, December 6, 2001: How Networking Really Works, Hrissi Samartzidou, microarray systems, Molecular Dynamics/Amersham Pharmacia Biotech

Thursday, January 31, 2002: Scientists Shaping Policy, Robert Cook-Deegan, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation investigator and director, Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Program, Institute of Medicine; Josette Lewis, biotechnology advisor, Center for Economic Growth and Agricultural Development, USAID

Thursday, March 21, 2002: Breaking the Glass Ceiling: A Networking Success Story, Jozetta Todd, vice president of information technology, Abbott Laboratories

Thursday, April 25, 2002: Networking Opportunities Workshop, a celebration of the AWIS 30th Anniversary with NIH intramural researchers and extramural administrators and people from other government agencies and industry

Seminars are held in the chapel at the Cloisters (Building 60) on the NIH campus from 4:30–6:00 p.m. Speaker presentations start at 5, with networking and light refreshments before and after. For information, contact Mini Varughese (301-523-6322) or Meredith Temple (301-496-1447) or visit the AWIS website.