Abstract 631: The mouse tumor biology database (MTB): An integrated data resource for mouse and patient derived xenograft (PDX) models of human cancer
Authors: Begley Dale A. , Krupke Debbie M. , Neuhauser Steven B. , Richardson Joel E. , Sundberg John P. , Eppig Janan T. , Bult Carol J. 
Published: July 2016

The laboratory mouse is the premier model organism for understanding the genetic basis of human cancer and is a powerful platform for investigating novel targets for therapeutic intervention. Research using genetically engineered mouse models has led to key insights into the genetics of cancer susceptibility, the function of tumor suppressors and oncogenes, and therapy responses in pre-clinical and co-clinical studies. Patient Derived Xenografts (PDX) models are another model system for in vivo cancer studies. PDX models are created by implanting patient tumors into immunodeficient or humanized mouse hosts. PDX models are a powerful translational research platform for pre-clinical and co-clinical studies. The number of mouse models and the volume and heterogeneity of data related to the characterization of these models has increased dramatically in recent years, making integrated searches of these data and identifying relevant models a significant barrier to their effective use. The Mouse Tumor Biology database (MTB) (http://tumor.informatics.jax.org) provides on-line query tools to facilitate cohesive searches and visualization of these varied data, thus enabling the identification of novel mouse models of human cancer and potential therapeutic treatments.

The Mouse Tumor Biology database is an expertly curated resource for information and data about genetically modified mouse strains and PDX models of human cancer. Enforcement of standard gene and strain nomenclature and use of controlled vocabularies within MTB enables complete and accurate searching of the published literature for relevant mouse models. MTB contains data from spontaneous or endogenously induced tumors from genetically defined mice including tumor classification, incidence and latency, tumor associated QTLs, pathology reports, images and genetic changes in the tumor (somatic) and background strain (germline) genomes. The PDX resource enables searches based on tumor type, cancer diagnosis, and genomic properties of the engrafted tumors. Information in MTB is obtained from curation of peer-reviewed scientific publications and from direct data submissions from individual investigators and large-scale programs. MTB contains over 71,000 Tumor Frequencies, and over 2,080 Pathology Reports with over 5,800 images from over 3,600 references. MTB also provides access to detailed clinical, pathological, expression and genomics data from over 450 PDX models. Information in MTB is integrated with cancer models data from other bioinformatics resources including PathBase, the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), and ArrayExpress. MTB is supported by NCI grant CA089713.

Citation Format: Dale A. Begley, Debbie M. Krupke, Steven B. Neuhauser, Joel E. Richardson, John P. Sundberg, Janan T. Eppig, Carol J. Bult. The mouse tumor biology database (MTB): An integrated data resource for mouse and patient derived xenograft (PDX) models of human cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 631.