Interphenome – an international project to integrate mouse phenotype data Phenotype data, such as clinical biochemistry data that can be used to identify mouse models of metabolic disorders such as Type 2 Diabetes, are being generated by a wide variety of laboratories worldwide. There are some important databases which hold phenotype data. These include europhenome (http://www.europhenome.eu/), the mouse genome informatics database (http://www.informatics.jax.org/searches/allele_form.shtml) and the mouse phenome database (http://www.jax.org/phenome). However much more data is held at other sites and there is no convenient way of searching across these sites to find mice with particular phenotypes. The Interphenome consortium, led by Dr John Hancock at Harwell, is an international group that aims to develop the means for these databases to be linked, making the task of researchers who wish to identify and study mice with particular phenotypic characteristics significantly easier. This work is described in a new publication http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00335-007-9004-x The consortium also has a web site at http://www.interphenome.org/ Interested parties can email the consortium at contact@interphenome.org.
