Policies and Procedures

It is critical that you contact the director of GEMF at fdelerue@mdanderson.org to discuss your project before submitting a request. We may not accept reagents directly from principal investigators and therefore highly advise to get in touch before ordering any reagent.

To obtain any service from the GEMF

• Contact Fabien Delerue (fdelerue@mdanderson.org or 713- 563-5827) prior to starting any project.
• Read the below Policies and Procedures section for important information regarding offered by the GEMF.
• Log in to https://mdanderson.ilabsolutions.com, register for an account, then go to the site to request the service(s).

Animal Use

Prior to starting any services, is it critical that investigators obtain approval from their ethics committee (for example, the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, or IACUC, in the United States). The GEMF cannot initiate any animal experiments without a valid animal use protocol number. The protocol must include the genetically modified line to be generated prior to starting the project.

Confidentiality

All information related to the experiment will be held fully confidential by the GEMF. No knowledge related to the experiment will be shared unless otherwise approved by the principal investigator.

Payment

Submission of a Project Request Form is required prior to the initiation of service by the GEMF. This form will be submitted for billing at the time service is performed, regardless of the final outcome. Please note that procedures are not guaranteed. For all experiments, agistments costs past the weaning date will be charged to the principal investigator.

Publications

The MD Anderson Genetically Engineered Mouse Facility is supported in part by a Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) from the National Cancer Institute. Therefore, all publications resulting from the services provided by the GEMF must cite the facility in the acknowledgements section. A copy of all publications resulting from animals created by the GEMF should be submitted to Fabien Delerue (Department of Genetics).

Scheduling

Service will be scheduled upon the receipt of all pertinent forms and documentation.

Specific Policies for Experiments

Our default mouse strain is the C56BL/6J. For any request that requires an alternative strain, additional costs will be added to purchase the mice. Agistments costs past the weaning date will be charged to the principal investigator.

Random Integration

A highly concentrated aliquot of the plasmid needs to be provided to the GEMF for purification. Ideally, an endotoxin-free MidiPrep or a MaxiPrep should be provided to the GEMF. Restriction enzyme(s) to isolate the linearised transgene also needs to be provided.

Gene Targeting in zygotes

Before initiating or designing any project, please contact Fabien Delerue. The GEMF is not liable for any project that has been designed and/or implemented without contacting the director.

Embryo Cryopreservation

As part of our Quality Control (QC), the GEMF will thaw one straw of frozen embryos and culture overnight to the blastocyst stage to ensure that embryo freezing is feasible for a particular mouse line.

Sperm Cryopreservation

For sperm cryopreservation, the GEMF will require two proven males, aged 2 to 8 months. Frozen sperm from each male will be tested by IVF for its fertilization capacity. A project is considered complete if the fertilization rate equals or exceeds 20% for each male.

Long Read Sequencing (LRS)

Long read sequencing for quality control of large knock-ins (KI) includes up to three mice.