History
Workshop on How to Recover Frozen Mouse Embryos (University of Maryland)
Date(s): Dec 6, 2005 - Dec 7, 2005
Location: University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
Scope/Topics
The Jackson Laboratory and The University of Maryland School of Medicine Office for Research & Graduate Studies (ORAGS)Transgenic Core Facility have teamed together to host a workshop on how to recover frozen mouse embryos. This hands-on workshop will help reduce the failure rate among laboratories receiving cryopreserved embryos for the first time and will facilitate the adoption of this very efficient approach for importing mouse strains.
Topics include:
- The generation of pseudopregnant recipient females
- the mouse estrous cycle
- Selection of female mice in proestrus
- How to thaw embryos frozen in plastic semen straws
- Embryo transfer surgery (two-cell embryos into the oviduct through the infundibulum)
- Vasectomy surgery
- Embryo handling
Contact: Erin Suhr, Jackson Labs
Facility Update 11/30/04: Germline Transmission at UM-SOM!
Dr. Litwack's MDGA1 knockout chimeras have successfully transmitted through the germline.
Facility Update 10/11/04: Chimeric Mice at UM-SOM!
The first chimeric mice made in the new Transgenic Core Facility were made this summer, and are now breeding to test germline transmission. Dr. David Litwack in the Dept. of Anatomy and Neurobiology is breeding 4 male chimeras to develop his MDGA1 knockout line.
The Transgenic Facility has added genotyping of mice produced by micro-injection to its list of services. We will either isolate genomic DNA from tail samples, run PCR to identify positive transgenic samples, or both.
Facility Update 5/20/04:
Cryopreservation of mouse embryos is now available from the Transgenic Core Facility. Please check details under "Services" and use the cryopreservation request form under "Forms" to order this service. Electroporation of embryonic stem cells is available as a service, but currently we are requesting that investigators provide their own ES cell line. These line are available commercially from Taconic Farms, Cellular and Molecular Technology (Specialty Media), and the ATCC (links under “ES cell vendors”. We will be providing ES cell lines in the near future. Please check this web site for future updates, or contact us at ext.60453.
Facility Update 4/27/04: Transgenic Mice at UM-SOM!!
The University of Maryland School of Medicine Transgenic Facility has completed two successful pronuclear injection projects. The first, for Dr. Chandrasekaran in the Department of Anesthesiology, has generated 6 transgenic founders in the first 30 pups analyzed. The second, for Dr. Sussman in Pharmaceutical Sciences, has generated 3 transgenic founders in the first 10 pups analyzed. The 1/2 price discount is still available for one last pronuclear injection project using FVB or B6C3 strains. The first blastocyst injection project is scheduled to begin in May.
A project is considered as scheduled once the appropriate request form, AND either a purified DNA preparation or frozen vials of ES cell clones are received in the facility. Request forms are available for downloading from the web site (see left menu), and in the facility—Howard Hall, room 581. Forms may be faxed to the director at 410-706-0459. An initial meeting with the facility director to discuss your project is required. Call 410-706-0454 for an appointment.
Prior approval of your transgenic project by both the Office of Animal Welfare Assurance and the IBC/Research Registration/Recombinant DNA (use of recombinant DNA in animals) is required to begin injections. The IBC form is being modified to eliminate the questions which are not applicable to transgenic projects; currently most questions can be answered "no" or "not applicable".