Mission Statement
The National Xenopus Resource (NXR) is located at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The MBL is an international center for research, education, and training in biology, biomedicine, and ecology. Housed in the MBL's Loeb Laboratory, the National Xenopus Resource is a cornerstone of the Eugene Bell Center for Regenerative Biology and Tissue Engineering. The NXR provides a facility for breeding the animals, maintaining genetic stocks, providing stocks to researchers, developing new experimental tools and husbandry techniques, or meeting other needs of the Xenopus research community.
The NXR is the only P40 resource center for Xenopus. The NXR serves an immediate need for the entire Xenopus community, and is the only repository for transgenic, inbred, and mutant Xenopus frogs in the United States. The NXR serves multiple functions: 1) it is a national repository for Xenopus tropicalis and Xenopus laevis, including inbred, mutant, and transgenic lines; 2) it serves as an advanced training venue by hosting different workshops; 3) it creates new transgenic and mutant X. laevis and X. tropicalis; and 4) it hosts researchers for short-term visits for them to use NXR resources. Through all these features the NXR serves the community by disseminating the most current technology and is dedicated to supporting scientists nationwide who use the aquatic frog Xenopus for research into the biological basis of human health, disease, aging, and recovery from injury and disability.
The NXR has grown from having zero frogs to over 10,000 since its inception in 2010; this growth has come from us maintaining over 150 transgenic and 250 mutant X. laevis and X. tropicalis strains along with wild type animals and other Xenopus species. The NXR works closely with Xenbase, the Xenopus model organism database, to ensure that information about the various strains is available on both websites.
Our Services
The National Xenopus Resource (NXR) and serves as a national stock center for X. laevis and X. tropicalis as well as a training center for advanced technologies (e.g. husbandry, cell biology, imaging, genetics, transgenesis, genomics). Offerings include:
- FREE accomodations upon availability for visiting scientists...
- FREE Xenopus custom knockout line generartion
- NXR staff provides support to visiting scientists and is experienced in all aspects of genome editing and transgenics
- Advice and protocols for xenopus husbandry, breeding, and lab protocols
The NXR houses over 10,000 frogs
We maintain at least 10 species of Xenopus
At least 15-20 visiting scientists come to the NXR each year
There are over 200 mutant and 150 transgenic lines
Principle Investigator
Dr. Marko Horb
Marko Horb was appointed Director of the National Xenopus Resource (NXR) in 2011.
