Fact Sheet
NIH Deltagen and Lexicon Knockout Mice and Phenotypic
Data Contracts
On October 5, 2005, NIH announced that contracts had been signed
with two companies, Deltagen, Inc. and Lexicon Genetics, Inc.,
to provide knockout mouse lines and extensive phenotyping data
on them to NIH. NIH wishes to make these mouse lines and data as
widely available to the research community as possible. The following
document provides details of the contract and information on how
investigators can access the mouse resources and data.
How
many mouse lines were obtained, and how were they chosen?
251 lines of mice, each with a different gene knocked out, and
detailed phenotypic data on them, were obtained. The choice of
the 251 lines was made from a total list of 1840 mouse lines available
from the two companies. The 19 Institutes, Centers, and Offices
at NIH that contributed funds to obtain mice under the contracts
chose the lines obtained.
Where can researchers find the list of mouse lines
obtained?
Information on the mouse lines obtained can be found on the NIH
Model Organisms Mouse Resources website. The list of mouse
lines and phenotypic data obtained, and links to their Mouse
Genome Informatics summaries and the Repository from which each
line may be obtained, is on the List
of Available Knockout Mice page.
How do researchers gain access to the mouse materials
obtained under the contracts?
For each mouse line, frozen embryos, sperm, and embryonic stem
(ES) cells were obtained under the contract. The materials were
equally divided between the NIH-sponsored Mutant Mouse Regional
Resource Center ( MMRRC )
repositories at UC Davis and the University of North Carolina ,
and The Jackson
Laboratory. The repositories will expand and archive these
materials and deliver the ES cells, frozen embryos, and live mice
available upon request to the biomedical research community. Expansion
of the materials will occur on a rolling basis and will require
approximately six months to complete. Researchers can register
interest in receiving the materials when they are ready for distribution
by following the links to the repository that received that particular
line, listed on the List
of Available Knockout Mice page.
How much will investigators pay to receive the mouse
materials?
The costs for the mouse materials will be the same as the usual
costs charged by the repositories for these materials on similar
lines. These fees cover shipping and continued regeneration and
rebanking of the mouse materials.
What restrictions exist on the use of the mouse materials?
The mouse materials may be sent by the repositories to any academic
or non-profit organization worldwide, but may not be sent to commercial
organizations. The only restriction on the use of the mouse materials
is that they may not be used for industry-funded contract research.
There are absolutely no publishing or intellectual property restrictions
on the use of the mouse materials . Researchers are free to publish
and seek patents on results obtained using the mice without restriction.
Commercial organizations must secure a license directly from the
respective owner, Deltagen or Lexicon, in order to obtain the mouse
materials.
How do researchers gain access to the phenotypic data
obtained under the contracts?
The phenotypic data are rich and wide-ranging, and are quite similar
between the two companies from which the mouse lines were obtained.
Within a company, the phenotyping was done in a uniform, well-documented
way in the same facilities by the same personnel, making comparisons
of a wide variety of phenotypes across mutant strains uniquely
possible. The phenotypic data on all 251 mouse lines will be made
available on the Mouse Genome Informatics website at The Jackson
Laboratory ( http://www.informatics.jax.org ),
in three stages.
First and currently available are weblinks to the phenotypic data reports on
each line, available at http://www.informatics.jax.org/external/ko/.
Second, assignment of MGI controlled phenotypic terms to the mutant strains
with links to the phenotypic data reports (see http://www.informatics.jax.org/searches/allele_form.shtml );
and third, integration of the raw data into a fully searchable
database format. We expect the first two stages to occur over the
next two months. The integration of all raw data into MGI will
be a longer process, but will be made available as quickly as possible.
What restrictions
exist on the use of the phenotypic data?
There are absolutely no restrictions on the use of the phenotypic
data. Researchers throughout the world, in the public and private
sectors, are free to publish and seek patents on results obtained
using the phenotypic data without restriction.
Will other lines of mice with other genes knocked
out be available in the future through these contracts?
The contracts allow acquisition of more lines and phenotypic data
under the same terms for the next three years. There are over 1500
additional lines that are available from the two companies, but
there is currently no NIH-sponsored funding assigned to acquiring
these lines. The list of additional lines will be posted on the NIH
Model Organisms Mouse Resources page. Since the contracts
can be utilized by all parts of NIH, researchers who are interested
in obtaining these mice should contact the program officer(s) on
their NIH grant(s) to discuss this. NIH is currently working out
mechanisms to streamline this process; updates will be posted on
this page as well as the websites of the MMRRC and The Jackson
Laboratory.
Which parts of NIH contributed to the procurement
of these knockout mice and phenotypic data?
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
National
Center for Research Resources
National Eye Institute
National Human Genome Research Institute
National Heart, Lung and
Blood Institute
National Institute on Aging
National Institute of Alcohol Abuse
and Alcoholism
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
National
Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases
National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development
National Institute
on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
National Institute
of Dental and Craniofacial Research
National Institute on Drug
Abuse
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
National Institute
of General Medical Sciences
National Institute of Mental Health
National Institute of Neurological
Disorders and Stroke
National Institute of Nursing Research
Office of AIDS Research
Whom do I contact with specific questions?
Questions about the acquisition and contracts should be directed
to the contract project officer:
Colin Fletcher, Ph.D.
Program Director
Knock Out Mouse Program (KOMP)
National Human Genome Research Institute
National Institutes of
Health
5635 Fishers Lane, Suite 4076, MSC 9305
Bethesda , Maryland 20892
fletcherc2@mail.nih.gov
Questions about availability and ordering of individual lines
should be directed to the repository to which each line has been
assigned. This is indicated on the list of mouse lines at List
of Available Knockout Mice page.
These contacts are: The
Jackson Laboratory :
Customer Service, 1-800-422-MICE, Email: orderquest@jax.org ,
or go to the order web site ( http://jaxmice.jax.org/orders/purchasinginfo.html )
to select an online order request form.
Mutant
Mouse Regional Resource Center (MMRRC): Customer Service,
1-800-910-2291 (North America) or 1-207-288-6009 (outside North
America ), service@mmrrc.org
At the MMRRC-UC Davis, contact 1-530-754-8686, mmrrc@ucdavis.edu
At the MMRRC-UNC, contact 1-919-966-9443, MMRRCtech@listserv.med.unc.edu
|