In fiscal year 2011, this Core continues to microinject constructs for the Mouse Cancer Genetics Program and their collaborators;both linear derived fragments of genomic DNA and BAC clones have been microinjected into the pronucleus of inbred and F2 hybrid mouse strains, depending on the goal of the experiment. We continue to perform in vitro fertilization (IVF), which we started in fiscal year 2010. IVF of MCGP mouse lines is a way to accelerate colony expansion for experimental research. IVF is a way to rapidly expand a mouse colony to generate large numbers of age, sex &genotypically matched cohorts for experimental use without vastly expanding the breeding colony. With IVF we can save on cage space, time, and costs as well as accelerate the time it takes to initiate experiments, IVF is basically a more efficient means to expand a mouse colony in a short amount of time. Another way we are trying to save money is to maintain colonies of mice that we use in great quantity or mice that are extremely expensive to buy, such as C57BL/6J, FVB/NJ, B6D2F1/J, Athymic nudes and Jax B6.CB17-Scid. To date we have saved in excess of $150,000 by raising our own mice instead of having to purchase the mice from a vendor. We continue performing tumor cell injections for two labs, along with measuring tumors twice a week for the labs. We are still performing castrations for prostate cancer studies for Yurong Song from the Terry Van Dyke Lab. This year we initiated a new set of surgeries for Simone Difilippantonio, of the CAPR Program, those studies involve ovary transfers and ovarian tumor transfers into the bursa of genetically compatible recipients. For our microinjection Core we continue to set up an average of 150 - 200 timed pregnancies per week, vasectomize 400 mice per year, send out animal shipments as well as interbuilding transfers, for which we initiated all Material Transfer Agreements as needed. A full list of services we provide investigators include microinjection, surgeries (embryo transfers, vasectomies, castrations, ovary transfers, ovariectomies, splenectomies and mammary biopsies), breeding, weaning, tail clipping, timed pregnancies, necropsies, palpation and measurement of tumors, injections, blood collection, rederivation, photography, monitoring aging studies, sending animals to histopathology, initiating material transfer agreements, arrange animal shipments, data entry and database management. The Transgenic Core Facility makes its own media and anesthetics used within the facility. We acid wash all of our own glassware, make all our own injection needles, holding pipettes and transfer pipettes. The Transgenic Core Facility also makes all our own microinjection dishes, which allows the injector to work with 150-200 embryos at a time instead of the standard 50 that depression slides hold. The Transgenic Core Facility is truly a multifaceted operation in that we can take care of just one aspect of a researchers mouse colony needs or we can manage the entire colony from the creation of the transgenic mice lines to the lines final disposition and run all their experiments. In 2011 we performed work for 13 different labs, maintaining experimental mouse lines for six of the 13 labs. The labs we are either managing the mouse colonies, running the mouse experiments and/or labs we have performed microinjection, in vitro fertilization and/or surgeries for in 2011 are all listed below. Cancer Pathways and Mechanisms - Terry Van Dyke Neural Development Section - Lino Tessarollo Stem Cell Regulation and Animal Aging Section - Steven Hou Tumor Angiogenesis Section - Brad St. Croix Genetics of Cancer Susceptibility Section - Shyam Sharan Epigenetics of DNA Repair and Aging Section - Philipp Oberdoerffer RNA Processing in Cellular Development Section - Shalini Oberdoerffer Vascular Biology Section - P. Charles Lin The Center for Advanced Preclinical Research - Simone Difilippantonio Genetics of Vertebrate Development Section - Mark Lewandoski Human Retrovirus Pathogenesis Section - Barbara Felber Laboratory of Experimental Immunology - Daniel McVicar Sphingolipid and Phospholipid Signaling Section - Jairaj Acharya
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