About the SMSR
The Special Mouse Strains Resource (SMSR) is a resource of special strains of mice that are valuable tools for genetic analysis of complex diseases. They include panels of recombinant inbred (RI) and chromosome substitution (CS) strains. The SMSR imports, cryopreserves, and distributes RI and CS strain panels that are vital to discovery of quantitative trait loci (QTL) and ultimately genes responsible for complex diseases. QTL and genes identified by QTL analysis in mouse models often correlate with homologous regions in the human genome. Thus, connecting phenotype and genotype in mice may translate into identification of genes responsible for human complex diseases such as atherosclerosis, diabetes, obesity, asthma, autoimmunity, and hypertension.
Goals of the SMSR
• To make these highly valuable RI and CS strains available to the scientific community• To enhance their value by additional phenotypic characterization
• To provide all data generated by this project to the scientific community in electronic form in the Mouse Phenome Database (MPD)
