This page hosts craniofacial gene expression data from the Fitzpatrick and Dixon labs. These data were generated as part of an NIDCR (NIH) funded P50 Craniofacial Center Grant and from research funded by the MRC. This data is being used to develop an atlas of craniofacial development at embryonic stages of relevance to human cleft lip and cleft palate.

This page will provide access to gene expression pattern data from the mouse for a growing number of genes with possible roles in craniofacial development. This data will include both traditional 2-dimensional wholemount in-situ images (Figure 1) as well as 3-dimensional data captured using Optical Projection Tomography (OPT). This data will also be incorporated in the Edinburgh Mouse Atlas of Gene Expression (EMAGE) database.

As well as this raw expression data this site will provide access to mappings of the data to the reference models produced by the Edinburgh Mouse Atlas Project (EMAP), text annotation of these expression patterns in line with the EMAP anatomical ontology and to the results of computational analyses of these data.

There will also be access to 3D mappings of a subset of the gene expression data focusing on patterns of co-expression and the visualisation of gene pathways and networks in specific craniofacial elements such as the developing 1st branchial arch (Figure 2 and Movie 1).

Figure 1: A sample of Wholemount in-situ data produced for FaceBase.

Figure 2: 3D gene expression data from OPT mapped to a reference model 1st branchial arch.

Movie 1: This movie shows the mapped gene expression patterns from Fig.2. These are visualised according to a heatmap corresponding to the intensity of the in-situ colour reaction. Each gene displayed is shown at progressively higher thresholds as the model rotates to show both the more diffuse weak expression and the more intense core expression to be appreciated. This movie is in Mpeg format and is 10.8Mb in size.