Includes bibliographical references and index.

Overview: gene knockouts -- Isolation and maintenance of primate embryonic stem cells -- Gene targeting in ES cells -- Manipulating mouse embryonic stem cells -- Gene targeting in a centralized facility -- The loxP/CRE system and genome modification -- Creation and use of a Cre recombinase transgenic database -- Choice of mouse strains for gene targeting -- Isolation, microinjection, and transfer of mouse blastocysts -- Aggregatin chimeras: combining ES cells, diploid and tetraploid embryos -- How to study pathologic phenotypes of knockout mice -- Analysis of hematopoietic phenotypes in knockout mouse models -- Isolation of embryonic fibroblasts and their use in the in vitro characterization of gene function -- Influence of genetic background on knockout mouse phenotypes -- Lineage allocation during early embryogenesis: mapping of the neural primordia and application to the analysis of mouse mutants -- Generation of double-knockout, embryonic stem cells -- In vitro differentiation of embryonic stem cells and analysis of cellular phenotypes -- Embryonic stem cells in teh study of hematopoiesis -- Interferon-inducible ES cell expression systems --Transgenic studies in the mouse: improving the technology towards a conditional temporal and spatial approach -- In vivo libraries of large insert transgenic mice for genetic mapping -- Epigenetic effects on transgene expression -- Positional-candidate cloning of genes from mouse mutants -- Genetically engineered mice: husbandry and resouces -- Embryo cryopreservation for transgenic mouse lines