A consortium consisting of The Wellcome Trust, seven of the constituent institutes of the US National Institutes of Health, and three pharmaceutical companies, has been set up with the aim of accelerating the sequencing of the mouse genome (see
press release from Sanger Centre). There is already a wealth of genetic information available about the mouse, the animal genetic model most closely related to humans. The hope is that combining this genetic information with the complete sequence of the mouse genome, and comparisons with the human genome, will speed up the rate at which genes can be identified in the DNA and their functions determined. The data generated by the work of the Mouse Sequencing Consortium (MSC) will be freely available. The announcement coincides with a claim from the private genomics company Celera that it has sequenced 95% of the genome in three different mouse strains from the one to be targeted by the MSC (see
Celera press release).