European Mouse Phenotyping Resource of Standardised Screens

The SOPs in EMPReSS are developed and reviewed by teams of scientists. The level of development of an SOP is indicated by the status level at the top of each SOP.

Status levels:
1. Initial development, discussion and review within expert working groups leading to a SOP
2. Review by the EMPReSS resource team
3. Review and sign off of SOP by a Eumorphia scientist outside the working


Each SOP has been validated by one or more research groups. The validation level is given at the top of each SOP.

Validation levels:
Validation by testing on selected inbred mouse strains and/or selected mutants at one EUMORPHIA laboratory
Validation by testing on selected inbred mouse strains and/or selected mutants at two EUMORPHIA laboratories
Full comparison of results of testing on selected inbred mouse strains and/or selected mutants at more than two EUMORPHIA


The SOPs are in EMPReSS are categorised according to the experience required and the amount of specialised equipment. The primary tests are divided into:

• Primary first line for those tests that are simple to apply and require little specialist equipment
• Primary extended which give further information on the phenotype, but require more specialised skills or equipment
• Secondary which give further information on the phenotype, but require more specialised skills or equipment
  

EMPReSS is a platform of individual tests. Individual tests can be performed or group of tests can be performed in sequence as recommended in the EMPReSS database.
A sub-set of the EMPReSS SOP (called EMPReSSslim) are being applied to 650 mutants in the EUMODIC project which is funded by the European Commission in FP6.  The aim is to use high-throughput phenotyping in order to caharacterise large numbers of mutants.

Data from the application of EMPReSS SOPs is held in the EuroPhenome database.  The user can visualise the data in a variety of ways, allowing assessment of inter-strain, inter-gender and inter-laboratory variation for the various standardised tests.  Access to all of the data with EuroPhenome, and to the software used to analyse and present it, is provided free of charge and without constraints.

Some SOPs give recommendations for the cohort size for each test.  In general the usual cost-benefit, i.e. the balance between using too few mice to be able to detect a phenotype or increasing the number to maybe detect subtle phenotypes.  Number of mice in cohorts is given in the EuroPhenome database.