Transgenic Core Services Service Fees Policies and Procedures

Protocols and Forms Links Contact

The TCP Transgenic Core (TG Core) is an amalgamation of the Transgenic Facilities at Mount Sinai Hospital and the Hospital for Sick Children. These facilities have been operating since early 1990s and have pioneered innovative technologies such as the production of chimeras between genetically modified mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells and embryos using the aggregation method as well the Tetraploid Complementation Assay.^1-3 More recent examples of this technology applications are described in following selected publications ^4-10 . The TCP Transgenic core continues to maintain a close affiliation with the laboratories of Dr. Janet Rossant and Dr. Andras Nagy.

The TCP Transgenic Core staff were among the organizers of very successful 8th International Transgenic Technology Meeting, held in Toronto in October 2008 (See PDF with ISTT Newsletter and Transtech society blogs: blog1, blog 2, blog 3) on behalf of the International Society for Transgenic Technologies. TCP Transgenic Core together with Dr. Andras Nagy laboratory hosted The Tetraploid Complementation Assay workshop for 22 participants right after TT2008 meeting.

The TCP Transgenic Core provides a range of services generating Genetically Engineered Mouse Models (GEMM) for investigators from TCP member hospitals, the University of Toronto as well as external academic, not-for-profit and for-profit institutions. We offer gene targeting services, generate chimeras using ES cell clones from Toronto ES cell facilities and The International Gene Trap Consortium including the Gene Trap Resource at The Centre for Modeling Human Disease (CMHD) and its distribution centre at the Canadian Mouse Mutant Repository (CMMR). More recently we started working with targeted ES cell clones from the International Knockout Mouse Consortium (IKMC) including KOMP (at http://www.knockoutmouse.org and http://www.komp.org) and NorCOMM.

TCP Transgenic Core Services »

• ES Cell Services
• Generation of Chimeras
• Pronuclear Microinjection
• Re-Derivation
• Miscellaneous Mouse Services

Selected References

1. Nagy, A., E. Gocza, E. Merentes-Diaz, V.R. Prideaux, E. Ivanyi, M. Markkula and J. Rossant. Embryonic stem cells alone are able to support fetal development in the mouse. Development 1990 110, 815-821. (http://dev.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/110/3/815)
2. Nagy, A., J. Rossant, R. Nagy, W. Abramow-Newerly and J.C. Roder Derivation of completely cell culture-derived mice from early passage embryonic stem cells. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 1993 90, 8424-8428. (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=8378314)
3. Wood, S.A., N.D. Allen, J. Rossant, A. Auerbach and A. Nagy. Non-injection methods for the production of embryonic stem cell-embryo chimaeras. Nature, 1993, 365, 87-89.
4. Kunath T, Gish G, Lickert H, Jones N, Pawson T, Rossant J. Transgenic RNA interference in ES cell-derived embryos recapitulates a genetic null phenotype. Nat Biotechnol. 2003 May; 21(5):559-61.
5. Vintersten K, Monetti C, Gertsenstein M, Zhang P, Laszlo L, Biechele S, Nagy A. Mouse in red: Red fluorescent protein expression in mouse ES cells, embryos, and adult animals. genesis. 2004 Dec 9;40(4):241-246
6. Lickert H, Cox B, Wehrle C, Taketo MM, Kemler R, Rossant J.. Dissecting Wnt/beta-catenin signaling during gastrulation using RNA interference in mouse embryos. Development. 2005 Jun; 132(11):2599-609
7. Takeuchi JK, Mileikovskaia M, Koshiba-Takeuchi K, Heidt AB, Mori AD, Arruda EP, Gertsenstein M, Georges R, Davidson L, Mo R, Hui CC, Henkelman RM, Nemer M, Black BL, Nagy A, Bruneau BG. Tbx20 dose-dependently regulates transcription factor networks required for mouse heart and motoneuron development. Development. 2005 May; 132(10):2463-74
8. George S.H.L., Gertsenstein M., Vintersten K., Korets-Smith E., Murphy J., Stevens M.E., Haigh J.J., and Nagy A. (2007) Developmental and adult phenotyping directly from mutant embryonic stem cells. 2007 PNAS 10.1073/pnas.0609277104
9. Takeuchi JK, Lickert H, Bisgrove BW, Sun X, Yamamoto M, Chawengsaksophak K, Hamada H, Yost HJ, Rossant J, Bruneau BG. Baf60c is a nuclear Notch signaling component required for the establishment of left-right asymmetry.
   Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Jan 16; 104(3):846-51.
10. Woltjen K, Michael IP, Mohseni P, Desai R, Mileikovsky M, Hämäläinen R, Cowling R, Wang W, Liu P, Gertsenstein M, Kaji K, Sung HK, Nagy A. piggyBac transposition reprograms fibroblasts to induced pluripotent stem cells. Nature 2009 Apr 9; 458(7239):766-70.

For more information, please contact:

Marina Gertsenstein
The Transgenic Core
The Toronto Centre for Phenogenomics
25 Orde Street, Toronto, ON M5T 3H7
Tel: 647-837-5811 x4302
Fax: 647-837-5834
Email: