Primary Investigator

Colin McKerlie, DVM, DVSc, MRCVS

Director, Canadian Mouse Mutant Repository
Senior Associate Scientist, Physiology & Experimental Medicine, The Hospital for Sick Children
Associate Professor, Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology, University of Toronto

Research Focus

Cryobiology and in vitro fertilization of rodents (Cryopreservation)
Phenotype discovery and phenogenomics – the pathology phenotype of mutant mouse models of human disease (Functional Genomics)
Phenotype informatics and morphology data visualization (Phenogenomic Data Integration & Visualization)
Phenogenomics of airway hyper response and the inflammation of asthma - understanding asthma using mouse models of airway disease

Dr. McKerlie is a veterinary pathologist and phenogenomic scientist. His research groups are working on three project areas that are all linked by a common goal that is to discover and understand the function of genes using model organisms. One project is focused on the development and application of pathology techniques to characterize the function of human genes and genetic pathways in mouse models of human disease. His lab group is applying these techniques in a random, genome-wide mutagenesis program at the Centre for Modeling Human Disease and in his research efforts using targeted mouse models of human disease. At the Canadian Mouse Mutant Repository (http://www.cmmr.ca), his research & services program focuses on the cryobiology of germ cells, advances on current technology for in vitro fertilization, and the archiving and distribution of mouse mutant resources. A third research interest uses some of the techniques and results from the mutagenesis project to focus on genes that might cause, or contribute to airway and lung disease in the adult and paediatric human population.

Select Publications

Liu L, Nutter LMJ, Law N, McKerlie C. Sperm freezing and in vitro fertilization in three sub-strains of C57BL/6 mice. J Am Assoc Lab Anim Sci 48 (1): 39-43. January 2009.

Yildiz C, Fleming C, Ottaviani P, McKerlie C. Fresh and frozen-thawed sperm quality, nuclear DNA integrity, in vitro fertility, and embryo development to live-born offspring of N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU) mice. Cryobiol 57 (2): 156-162. October 2008.

Liu L, Wood G, Morikawa L, Ayearst R, Fleming C, McKerlie C. Restoration of fertility by orthotopic transplantation of frozen adult mouse ovaries. Human Repro 23(1): 122-128. January 2008.

Yildiz C, Ayearst R, Law N, Liu L, Ottaviani P, McKerlie C. Effects of cryopreservation on sperm quality, nuclear DNA integrity, in vitro fertilization, and in vitro embryo development in the mouse. Reproduction 133(3): 585-595. March 2007.

McKerlie C. Cause and effect considerations in pathology diagnosis and pathology phenotyping of genetically engineered mice. ILAR J (Nat Acad Sci) 47 (2): 155-161. March 2006.