A mouse population that once totaled more than 200,000 is down to zero at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, but it's all part of the plan. Beginning in the next few weeks and continuing for several years, the mouse colony will be rederived from stocks of embryos frozen in special freezers chilled by liquid nitrogen. The stock consists of more than 900 strains, some dating back to the 1940s. Strains for which there is funding - about 300 will be brought back to life. The new mice will be housed in ORNL's brand new 30,000-square-foot pathogen-free Russell Laboratory for Comparative and Functional Genomics. Because the facility is sterile, ORNL will now be able to exchange its specially mutated mice with other research institutions and will be eligible for research dollars previously unavailable to ORNL.
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