<html><body><div style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000"><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;">Dear Colleagues,</span></div><div><p style="margin: 0px;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px;"> The 2014 <em>Xenopus</em> White Paper, which was based on discussions from the PI meeting at MBL Woods Hole in August 2013, is now available for download from Xenbase.<span style="font-size: medium;" data-mce-style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://www.xenbase.org/entry/doNewsRead.do?id=145" target="_blank" data-mce-href="http://www.xenbase.org/entry/doNewsRead.do?id=145"><br></a></span><a href="http://www.xenbase.org/entry/doNewsRead.do?id=145" target="_blank" data-mce-href="http://www.xenbase.org/entry/doNewsRead.do?id=145"></a></p><p style="margin: 0px;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Object"><a href="http://www.xenbase.org/entry/doNewsRead.do?id=145" target="_blank" data-mce-href="http://www.xenbase.org/entry/doNewsRead.do?id=145">http://www.xenbase.org/entry/doNewsRead.do?id=145</a></span></p><p style="margin: 0px;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Object"><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;">This White Paper highlights recent contributions of </span><em style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;">Xenopus</em><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;"> research to the NIH’s mission, identifies emerging opportunities for the </span><em style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;">Xenopus</em><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;"> system and outlines the </span><em style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;">Xenopus</em><span style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;"> community’s priorities for further NIH support. Based on the consensus from the meeting, the prioritized needs of the community are:</span></p><p style="margin: 0px;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px;"> 1. Renewal of the National <em>Xenopus</em> Resource center (NXR) <br> 2. Renewal of Xenbase, the <em>Xenopus</em> bioinformatics database <br> 3. <em>Xenopus</em> genome improvement<br> 4. Improvement of <em>Xenopus</em> antibody resources <br> 5. Improve Genome Editing Resources (TALEN/CRISPR) in <em>Xenopus</em> <br> 6. Enhancement of transgenic resources <br> 7. Functional characterization of the genome - XvivoENCODE <br> 8. Continued support for <em>Xenopus</em> training and meetings</p><p style="margin: 0px;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px;"> Overarching goal for <em>Xenopus</em>: Facilitate the use of <em>Xenopus</em> to model human disease</p><p style="margin: 0px;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px;"><br></p></div><div><strong style="font-size: 12pt;" data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #50603b;" data-mce-style="color: #50603b;">PIs: Please reference the White Paper in your NIH grant proposals and contact your program officers.</span></strong></div><div><p style="margin: 0px;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px;"><strong><span style="color: #50603b;" data-mce-style="color: #50603b;"><br></span></strong></p><p style="margin: 0px;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px;"><strong><span style="color: #50603b;" data-mce-style="color: #50603b;"><br></span></strong></p><p style="margin: 0px;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px;">Many Thanks,</p><p style="margin: 0px;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px;"> Marko Horb, MBL Woods Hole</p><p style="margin: 0px;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px;"> Aaron Zorn, Cincinnati Children’s</p><p style="margin: 0px;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px;">Contributors:<br> Julie Baker <br> Daniel Buchholz <br> Sally Moody <br> Dan Rokhsar <br> Sergi Sokol <br> Gert Veenstra<br> Mustafa Khokha</p><p style="margin: 0px;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px;" data-mce-style="margin: 0px;"><br></p></div><div><span></span>---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>Marko Horb, Ph.D.<br>Director, National Xenopus Resource (NXR)<br>Marine Biological Laboratory<br>7 MBL Street<br>Woods Hole, MA 02543<br><div><br></div>Email: xenopus@mbl.edu<br>Office: 508-289-7627<br>Cell: 508-564-3764<br><div><br></div>http://www.mbl.edu/xenopus<br>https://twitter.com/xenopusnxr<span></span><br></div><div><br></div></div></body></html>