The aging population in developed countries leads to rapid increase in cancer incidence and other aging-related disorders. To accelerate cancer and aging research and to contribute to the theme of ‘healthy aging’, the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) and the European Research Institute for the Biology of Aging (ERIBA) have established a Mouse Clinic for Cancer and Aging research (MCCA). The MCCA will accelerate the development of genetically engineered mouse models (GEMMs) of human cancer and aging syndromes. These mouse models will be used for developing new therapies against cancer and aging-related diseases.

The MCCA houses three key expertises:

A Transgenic facility for efficient derivation, genetic modification and distribution of embryonic stem cell (ESC) lines from GEMMs, and for production of ESC-derived mice.
A Mouse Cancer Clinic for preclinical intervention studies and imaging of cancer growth and therapy response in advanced mouse models of human cancer.
An Aging and Phenotyping Facility for controlled aging and phenotyping studies in different inbred mouse strains and GEMMs, and for creating a centralized biobank of frozen mouse tissues for aging research.
The MCCA is partner of the EC funded Infrafrontier Project for the implementation of a sustainable European research infrastructure for systemic phenotyping, archiving and distribution of mouse models. The MCCA is also the National partner of the European Mouse Mutant Archive (EMMA) for distribution of GEMM-derived ESC lines via the Infrafrontier portal.