About the NXR

The National Xenopus Resource 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 National Xenopus Resource (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 frog Xenopus is a key model organism for biomedical research.  The ability of Xenopus to regenerate tissues, organs and limbs makes it an important model for regenerative medicine research.   In 2011, Dr. Marko Horb became the first director of the NXR and under his direction the NXR is expanding and now houses more than 2000 frogs from different transgenic and mutant lines.  The NXR has hosted their European counterparts (from the European Xenopus Resource Center, EXRC) and has visited the EXRC to learn from the more established European facility.

2011 also saw the first NXR meeting held at the MBL. Xenopus research team leaders from around the world gathered in Woods Hole to discuss emerging technologies for Xenopus research and how this new knowledge can be disseminated to the research community.  The NXR will become an important research hub, running courses in Xenopus techniques, fostering collaborations, and attracting scientists from outside the MBL community.

X. laevis and X. tropicalis have been available since 2011 and custom transgenic services since 2013. Input from the Xenopus research community regarding what genetic lines should be raised, and priorities for advanced research courses, is highly encouraged. Please send your feedback to Xenopus@mbl.edu.

Citing the NXR

If the NXR contributed to your work please cite us in your papers.

Cite us in the acknowledgements: National Xenopus Resource RRID:SCR_013731

Cite us in your references: Pearl, E. J.,  Grainger, R. M., Guille, M., Horb, M. E. (2012) “Development of Xenopus resource centers: the National Xenopus Resource and the European Xenopus Resource Center” Genesis, 50, 155-163.

XINE

A Xenopus Community email group

Xine is a Xenopus community email list, hosted at the NXR, that facilitates communication within the global Xenopus community. It is intended to inform researchers about important developments and to disseminate information of wide interest. Information, including meetings, workshops, grants, and reagents, and questions can be posted by members only.

Xine depends on contributions from members of the Xenopus community for its content. Not a member? Join our listerve

Xenbase keeps a complete archive (by year) of all Xine releases and supplements. Previous issues of Xine

If you encounter any problems, e-mail the editor, Marko Horb (xenopus@mbl.edu).