The Informatics of High-Throughput Mouse Phenotyping: EUMODIC and Beyond

Now that not only the mouse genome sequence but also the ability to carry out high throughput manipulation of mouse ES cells is in place, projects are underway to understand the functions of individual mouse genes in a systematic manner. Central to this will be the systematic analysis of the phenotypes of mutant mouse lines. EUMODIC, the first large-scale project to screen mouse knockout lines for disease-related phenotypes is underway and experience shows the necessity of a well-organised bioinformatics infrastructure for the capture, analysis and dissemination of the data emerging from such projects. Here we discuss the fundamental requirements for such a bioinformatics infrastructure, progress so far and the developments that will be required in future.