JAX® Services Enables Research with Genetically-Engineered Mice from Ingenium, Ozgene and TIGM
JAX® NOTES Issue 509, Spring 2008
Genetically-engineered mice, such as targeted mutants, knockins, and other transgenics, have become critically important tools for understanding gene function and developing therapies for human diseases. We at The Jackson Laboratory have an extensive collection of these mice, but if you cannot find the one you need in our collection, you may be able to find it or have it constructed at one of the following three institutions: Ingenium Pharmaceuticals, Ozgene, or the Texas Institute for Genomic Medicine (TIGM). Each of these organizations has unique resources and capabilities for producing and delivering genetically well-defined mutant mice quickly and cost-effectively. JAX® Services can help you determine which of these organizations is best suited to your research program. Our goal is to help you easily produce and obtain the strain or strains you need while saving you time, money, and resources. JAX® Services can manage the entire process, allowing you to focus on your research.
Ingenium Pharmaceuticals has a library of over 16,000 lines of cryopreserved mutant mouse sperm derived from a chemical mutagenesis program. Each line contains approximately 20 point mutations in gene coding regions on a pure inbred background. An average of 10 different alleles are available for each target gene in the library. By using the cryopreserved sperm and the rapid INGENOtyping® screening technology, mice with defined mutations can be delivered in less than four months. The technology allows retrieval of a gene specific allelic series of mutants, representing hypo- and hypermorphic as well as null alleles.
Ozgene has been producing genetically-modified mice and rats for global markets for nearly 20 years. Its senior management team has published in leading scientific journals, including Nature, Science, EMBO, and PNAS. Ozgene specializes in designing and constructing vectors, with which it produces knockout, knockin, conditional, humanized, transgenic, and lentiviral transgenic mice. Ozgene will work with you to develop a fully customized result.
TIGM maintains the world's largest gene trap library of mouse embryonic stem (ES) cell clones and provides both ES cells and breeder pairs of mice to academic and commercial institutions around the world. TIGM maintains sequence-tagged ES cell lines established on both a C57BL/6 genetic background (approximately 350,000 lines representing mutations in over 10,000 genes) and on a 129/SvEvBrd genetic background (over 270,000 lines representing mutations in over 9,000 genes). The National Institutes of Health has rights to a subset of these lines, allowing TIGM to distribute them to academic researchers on a subsidized basis. Together, these established resources provide unparalleled coverage of the mouse genome: over 620,000 cell lines representing mutations in over 13,000 unique genes. TIGM also has an extensive, user-friendly internet-accessible database that allows users to search their libraries, inquire about a specific line, and place orders.
Whether you choose to begin your research with Ingenium, Ozgene, or TIGM, JAX® Services can ensure that it progresses seamlessly, efficiently, and cost-effectively by providing follow-up services such as the following:
- JAX® Speed Expansion Services can use in vitro fertilization (IVF) to quickly expand a colony of your novel strain and supply you with mice that can either be studied immediately or used to rapidly build a breeding colony;
- JAX® Breeding Services can develop and maintain a supply of your mice and ship them to you as needed;
- JAX® Speed Congenic Development Services can rapidly move the mutation onto a different genetic background;
- JAX® In Vivo Services can phenotype your mouse and perform compound evaluation studies customized to your needs.
Ingenium mutant mice are available by in vitro fertilization performed at The Jackson laboratory and are open for all other services provided by The Jackson Laboratory. Under special agreement with The Jackson Laboratory, Ozgene and TIGM can cryopreserve your novel strain as sperm and ship it to JAX® Services for quality control, storage, and recovery, safeguarding your investment. Combining JAX® Speed Expansion with our expertise in JAX® Breeding Services can help you more rapidly and cost-effectively receive the numbers of high-quality, genetically-engineered mice you need.
For more information on how you can take advantage of the combined resources of Ingenium, Ozgene, TIGM, and JAX® Services, visit our website.
