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Presentation of the MCI/ICS

The MCI/ICS was created in 2002 by Professor Pierre Chambon with the aim of providing a highperformance, high‐throughput tool for the generation and functional study, phenotyping, of genetically modified mice. Over the years, the main missions of the MCI/ICS, as a service infrastructure, have become 1) To be a service platform for research combining the capacity to generate, on a large scale, targeted mutations in the mouse with the comprehensive high‐throughput phenotypic analysis of the mouse with the aim of facilitating the creation, analysis and use of the mouse model; 2) To maintain relevant expertise in both in‐house research and development programmes to support ICS activities in the field of mutagenesis, transgenesis, phenotyping, bioinformatics and data analysis; 3) To be a reference centre in the field of mouse functional genomics and translational research; 4) To promote the best training both internally and for users in order to guarantee the most efficient procedure in respect of ethics and animal Welfare

The MCI/ICS is able to manage and carry out each of the key stages of a project, from the generation of genetically modified mice, their maintenance and amplification in the animal house, their phenotyping and their distribution. It can also conduct preclinical studies to validate therapeutic targets, test molecules and determine their primary and secondary effects or interference with other functions; key steps in the pharmaceutical process.

Since its opening, the ICS has contributed to the region of more than 2000 mouse models and more than 1000 phenotyping projects for the academic and private sectors. Since 2011, it has joined the PHENOMIN initiative, winner of the national Health and Biology infrastructures within the framework of the investments for the future. With these two partners, the ICS is entering a new perspective and will strengthen its position in mouse phenogenomics. It contributes to the European infrastructure INFRAFRONTIER identified by the European Forum ESFRI for biomedical sciences and participates in particular in the international initiative of the Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC, http://www.mousephenotype.org/ ) in order to create the first encyclopedia of gene function in a mammal.

http://www.ics-mci.fr/en/