Big plans start with small rodents-McLaughlin Research Institute seeks to expand

What’s that expression? You have to swab out the mouse cages before you can
soar with the eagles?

Well, that’s the way it goes at McLaughlin Research Institute, anyway.

By PETER JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Writer

Great Falls’ top-notch research lab is seeking $3 million to expand, renovate and
better equip the facility, to further its disease-fighting goals.

But first, they have to find a better way to keep their reams of rodent residents
clean and content.

MRI, which uses genetically modified mice to research human diseases, last year
obtained a $1 million federal appropriations to reduce overcrowding. Part of that
Phase 1 work, which starts in September, includes buying more sophisticated
mouse cages.

For Phase 2, McLaughlin has asked Montana’s congressional delegation for a $3
million allocation to expand, renovate and better equip the facility.

One major piece of equipment would be a $400,000, high-volume, conveyor-style
mouse cage cleaner.

"New mouse cage racks and a mouse cage cleaner might sound mundane," MRI
development officer Dave Crum said. "But creating more space and mouse storage
is critically important."

"We do studies of human disease using mouse models, but we’re stuffed to the
gills," said George Carlson, McLaughlin’s scientific director. "Without more space,
we can’t take on any new projects, explore new ideas or bring new scientists on
board.

"To remain competitive in getting the research grants that support us, we need to
be able to expand our programs or branch into new directions."

Carlson said that could include expanding his collaborative effort with a Nobel
Prize-winning scientist Stanley Prusiner, who discovered prions, renegade proteins
believed to cause the fatal degenerative mad cow disease in cattle and chronic
wasting disease big game animals.

"Combined, both phases will allow McLaughlin scientists to use the research mice
in a more efficient manner and to provide each scientist with access to more
mice," planning director Bruce Davidson said. "That will positively impact the
quality of the research."

McLaughlin now has five principal investigators, or scientists, and a support staff of
45. The $3 million appropriation would allow space for two more principal
investigators and more support staff.

McLaughlin’s National Development Council has pledged to raise $2 million in
matching money to recruit and equip the two new scientists.

As for the mice, MRI simply has too many cages in rooms that are too small,
Carlson said. Mouse care technicians frequently have to shift around one cage to
get to another. And the cages must be moved every week to be cleaned and
sterilized. Such disruptions could interrupt their breeding cycles.

And even though cage-cleaning crews work double shifts, hallways are crowded
with cages waiting to be cleaned, Crum said.

In Phase 1, a new mouse transgenic facility, where the genetically modified mice
are created, will be built upstairs, freeing space downstairs. The new facility will
allow scientists to freeze sperm and do in vitro fertilization, so not as many live
mice will be needed.

In addition, more than 250 large movable racks of self-ventilating cages will be
bought; they will need to be cleaned every two or three weeks instead of every
week.

If the money materializes, the second phase, which could take two or three years,
would make room for seven principal investigators and a support staff of 55.

Also in the second phase, 3,650 more square feet would be added to the
42,000-square-foot building, on the north side’s western half. That will free up space
for the cage washer and other mouse facility functions.

Second-floor office space would be converted to lab space for new scientists, and
new equipment, including an improved sterilizer for McLaughlin’s separately
ventilated and contained infectious disease unit, would be bought, allowing
McLaughlin to upgrade the risk level of its research.

Carlson now studies mouse scrapie, a fatal degenerative nervous disease of sheep
caused by prions. If MRI’s risk level is upgraded, He could study human prion
disease and possibly chronic wasting disease.

Carlson sees "a real need" to do more research CWD, which could threaten
hunting in several western and Midwestern states and could conceivably even
spread to cattle.

He met recently with U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and said the senator is
hopeful the delegation can secure the $3 million.

Although the federal government is facing its first budget deficit in several years,
Carlson thinks Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and U.S.
Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., a member of the Appropriations Committee, have the
clout to help.

Regardless of the diseases he and McLaughlin’s other scientists decide to
research, Carlson said the expansion will improve their work.

"With a bigger facility, more space, new equipment and particularly new scientists,
we will be able to take on new approaches and maybe find solutions more quickly,"
he said.

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