Transgenic Mouse Core Facility Overview

Mission

The Transgenic Mouse Core Facility provides investigators at Wake Forest University Health Sciences (WFUHS) access to state-of-the-art technologies for the generation of genetically-engineered mouse lines.

Services

• Consultation with the Core Director regarding the strategy for production and testing of the transgenic and gene targeting constructs
• Pronuclear microinjection of DNA into fertilized mouse embryos for the production of transgenic mouse lines
• Gene targeting in mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells
• Injection of gene-targeted ES cells into mouse blastocysts to produce chimeric mice for the creation of Knock-out/Knock-in mouse lines
• Embryo rederivation for eradication of horizontally-transmitted, post-implantation, and vertically transmitted pathogens
• Mouse genotyping from tail clips, using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) procedures 

Details

• About Transgenic Mice
• About Knock-out/Knock-in Mice
• About Embryo Rederivation
• About Mouse Genotyping Service
• Procedure Request Forms
• How to Contact Us

Staff

• Liqing Yu, MD PHD
  Director, Transgenic Mouse Core Facility
• Tanya Paschke
  Supervisor, Transgenic Mouse Core Facility
• Feng Guo, MD
  Gene Targeting Specialist

 

Additional Information:

These Cell Migration Consortium/Nature Publishing Group websites provide useful background or resource material for those unfamiliar with the procedures:

• Beginners with Transgenic or Knockout Mice, start here:
  http://www.cellmigration.org/resource/komouse/komouse_approaches.html
  
• For a guide to the basics of preparing Gene Targeting Constructs, go here: http://www.cellmigration.org/resource/komouse/
  komouse_resources_targeting4beginners.html

Note: If you cannot make your own gene targeting constructs, there are companies that will make gene targeting constructs for a fee. The Transgenic Mouse Core staff have not had direct experience with any of these companies, but would be happy to provide investigators with their names. Call Dr. Liqing Yu at 716-0920 for more information.

ES Cell Lines Available for Generating Some Knockout Mice

Some knockout mice can be made without the investigator having to generate the targeting constructs or the targeted mouse embryonic cells.

BayGenomics is an NIH-sponsored initiative in the San Francisco Bay area that is using gene-trap vectors to inactivate thousands of genes in mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells for generating knockout mice. These ES cell lines are readily available to the research community for a nominal charge.

You can search their webpage to see if your own "gene of interest" has been inactivated in an ES cell line: Go to http://baygenomics.ucsf.edu and then go to their "Overview" page, from which you can find information about searching for your "gene of interest" and how to order ES cell lines.

If you find your "gene of interest" has been trapped in an ES cell line and you want to make a knockout mouse for that gene, all you need to do is order that ES cell line from BayGenomics and give it to the Transgenic Core Facility. Our staff can culture the ES cells for you and microinject the cells into mouse blastocysts for generating knockout mice.

Call the Transgenic Mouse Core Facility's director, Dr. Liqing Yu, at 716-0920 for more information.

Internal Advisory Committee

• Richard St. Clair, PhD - Chair
  Pathology - Lipid Science
• Paul Dawson, PhD
  Internal Medicine - Gastroenterology, Pathology - Lipid Science
• John Parks, PhD
  Pathology - Lipid Science
• Larry Rudel, PhD
  Pathology - Lipid Science

   

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