The e-Mouse Atlas Project (1992- )

The Edinburgh Mouse Atlas, also called the e-Mouse Atlas Project (EMAP), is an online resource comprised of the e-Mouse Atlas (EMA), a detailed digital model of mouse [7] development, and the e-Mouse Atlas of Gene Expression (EMAGE), a database that identifies sites of gene expression in mouse [7] embryos. Duncan Davidson and Richard Baldock founded the project in 1992, and the Medical Research Council (MRC) in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, funds the project. Davidson and Baldock announced the project in an article titled "A Real Mouse for Your Computer," citing the need to manage and analyze the volume of data that overwhelmed developmental biologists. Though EMAP resources were distributed via CDROM in the early years, the project moved increasingly online by the early 2000s. Into the early decades of the twenty-first century, it was in active development. EMAP can be utilized as a developmental biology teaching resource and as a research tool that enables scientists to explore annotated 3D virtual mouse [7] embryos. EMAP's goal is to illuminate the molecular basis of tissue differentiation [8].