CORE  SERVICES     

 

CORE  3

GNOTOBIOTIC AND GENETICALLY-ENGINEERED MOUSE CORE SERVICES

Casey T. Weaver, M.D.

Trenton R. Schoeb, D.V.M., Ph.D.

Xiaoyun Wu, M.D.

 

Access

      Requests from Center investigators will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis, subject to the requirement that the research be appropriate for the Center project and likely to contribute to its success. If qualifying requests from Center investigators exceed core capacity, the core will provide assistance and technician training to enable investigators to maintain isolator-housed animals in their own animal facilities; however, responsibility for arranging extra animal space to accommodate isolators will be the responsibility of the investigator. Requests from non-Center researchers will be considered if core capacity allows, but such projects will incur additional fees. 

Gnotobiotic Unit (Dr. Schoeb)

1. Cesarean derivation. 

2. Monthly QC. 

3. Semi-annual QC.  

4. Comprehensive QC for newly derived mice.

5. Investigator isolator package. 

6. Investigator isolator package, isolators assembled by core staff.  

7. Investigator technician training, without isolators.

8. Prepare and QC investigator supply cylinder, per cylinder.

9. Rebuild investigator supply cylinder, per cylinder.

10. Establish defined flora in germfree mice.

11. QC defined flora.

12. Phenotyping or evaluation of experimental disease.

 

Genetically-Engineered Mouse Unit (Dr. Weaver)

  13.  Develop and implement custom breeding strategy

14. Collect tail tips or other samples for genotyping/pcr genotyping.

15. Flow cytometric phenotyping.

16. Genome scan/marker-assisted backcross.

17. Cryopreservation (sperm or ovary)

 

 

Lentiviral Vector Transgenic Unit (Dr. Wu)

18. Construct lentivirus expression vectors with GFP tag.

19. Prepare high concentration lentivirus to test expression of the interest gene.

20. Use lentivirus vectors to generate founder mice expressing the gene(s) of interest.

Charges

       Per diem animal costs will be charged back to investigators at the current labor discounted rate. Costs of microbiological quality control also will be charged back to investigators at cost.  Our goal is to charge Center investigators the minimum possible for continued successful operation of the core, and we hope eventually to reduce or eliminate charges for derivations for Center investigators. However, this will depend on factors that have yet to be determined, such as core usage and future availability of suitable additional space.