Karen Moore, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Animal Sciences
Ph.D., Texas A&M University
Postdoctoral, United States Department of Agriculture,
Gene Evolution and Mapping Labratory, Beltsville, MD

Dr. Moore's Homepage

The overall goal of our research program is to improve livestock production using in vitro embryo production, nuclear transfer and transgenesis. One main area of research focuses on improving the efficiencies of nuclear transfer, by determining how both the in vitro culture and in vivo maternal environments effect early embryonic survival and development to term. Gene expression studies to compare effects of these environments should help resolve problems related to large calf syndrome, which is commonly seen in in vitro produced and cloned offspring.

Another major area of research interest is to improve animal production by modifying the animal genome. Gene targeting is used to alter, disrupt (knockout), or insert (knockin) genes of importance into precise locations within the genome. Stem cells are used as a model system and as advances in transgenesis and targeting are made, we will move these modifications into cattle somatic cells for use in nuclear transfer.

Representative Publications:

Kerr DE, Plaut K, Bramley AJ,Williamson CM, Lax AJ, Moore K, Wells KD, Wall RJ. 2001. Lysostaphin expression in milk confers protection against staphylococcal infection of mammary glands in transgenic mice. Nature Biotechnology 19:66-70.

Lee CK, Moore K, Scales N, Westhusin M, Newton G, Im K-S, and Piedrahita JA. 2000. Isolation and genetic transformation of primordial germ cell (PGC)- 'derived cells from cattle, goats, rabbits, and rats. Asian Aust J Anim Sci, 13:587-594.

Wells, K.D., Foster, J.A., Moore, K., Pursel, V., Wall, R. 1999. Tetracycline switch improvement by including an insulator, an RTTA reporter, or codon optimization. Transgenic Res. 8:371-381.

Piedrahita, J.A., Dunne, P., Lee, C.K., Moore, K., Rucker, E., Vazquez, J.C. 1999. Use of embryonic and somatic cells for production of transgenic domestic animals. Cloning 1:73-88.

Piedrahita, J.A., Moore, K., Oetama, B., Lee, C.K. 1998. Generation of transgenic porcine chimeras using primordial germ cell (PGC)-derived colonies. Biol. Reprod. 58:1321-1329.

Moore, K. and Piedrahita, J.A. 1997. The effects of human leukemia inhibitory factor (hLIF) and culture medium on in vitro differentiation of cultured porcine inner cell mass (pICM). In Vitro Cell. Dev. Biol. 33:61-70.