NIH Grantees can now purchase Lexicon mice through Taconic or The Texas A&M Institute for Genomic Medicine (TIGM) with funds from grants under the same terms as NIH contract

Notice Number: NOT-DA-11-019

Release Date: May 6, 2011

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

This Notice updates NOT-DA-08-015 and NOT-DA-10-026.  Under NOT-DA-08-015 Lexicon made over 2,500 knockout mouse strains available for purchase by NIH funded investigators under the same terms as the contract NIH used to acquire knockout mice by using NIH grant money. These mice are no longer available directly through Lexicon but are now being made available through Taconic as the distributor of Lexicon mice www.taconic.com/NIH or through The Texas A&M Institute for Genomic Medicine (TIGM) http://www.tigm.org/NIH.  Over 3600 KO mice are available from Taconic http://kodatabase.taconic.com. More than 3,000 established mouse knockout lines made by homologous recombination in 129/SvEv x C57BL/6 background or by injecting embryonic stem cell clones from the C57BL/6 and 129SvEv gene trap libraries are available from TIGM http://www.tigm.org/database/

Under these terms, a NIH investigator acquiring a Lexicon knockout mouse through Taconic or TIGM using his or her grant funds is expected to place the mouse lines in a NIH-supported mouse repository (see instructions below for submitting to MMRRC).  Universities, medical schools, and research laboratories will have access to mice and germplasm all over the world.  Taconic will send heterozygous mice and materials to the investigator. The investigator and institution will be responsible for coordinating with a NIH supported repository to ensure that banks of cryopreserved embryos, sperm, and embryonic stem cells are archived using state-of-the-art procedures. Mice and cryopreserved germplasm will be available from the central repository for a nominal fee to cover the costs of quality control, archiving, shipping, and restocking the archive. Investigators acquiring mice are also responsible for ensuring that phenotypic data received from Lexicon is deposited in the Mouse Genome Informatics database or another publicly accessible database. All information provided by Lexicon for each mutant mouse will be made available to researchers worldwide without restriction.

In summary, NIH funded investigators may use grant money to purchase Lexicon KO mice or TIGM KO mice and gene trap lines if it is within the scope of their grants.  Those interested in requesting administrative supplements to acquire Lexicon knockout mice should contact their Program Director prior to making a request.  When possible, NIH supported investigators are encouraged to pool resources to share the cost of acquiring a mouse with particular null mutation.  Before ordering a knockout strain from TIGM or Taconic investigators are encouraged to check availability of knockout mice at the International Mouse Strain Resource (www.findmice.org) or at the International Mouse Knockout Consortium (www.knockoutmouse.org) or at the Knockout Mouse Project Repository (www.komp.org).

Once an investigator has decided to place an order, he or she should follow the procedure listed below.

For Taconic orders: email the completed Terms of Sale found at www.taconic.com/NIH and purchase order to:

Kara Sellers
Area Technical Representative
Taconic
Kara.sellers@taconic.com

For TIGM orders: please contact the following person to obtain and submit the Terms of Sale and place your order:

Andrei Golovko, PhD.
Customer Relations Liaison
Texas A&M Institute for Genomic Medicine
agolovko@tigm.org

Instructions for Submitting Lexicon Knockout Mice to the Mutant Mouse Regional Resource Centers:

1. Read the terms and conditions for submitting your application using the following link: http://www.mmrrc.org/submission/strain_submission_terms.html.

2. Indicate that you have read, accept and can meet the terms and conditions by clicking the I accept button.

3. Provide information about the mouse you are submitting. Please note that Lexicon mice are pre-authorized for MMRRC acquisition. Complete item 1 by clicking the YES button and selecting Lexicon Strain in the pull down box.

4. After submitting information on the characteristics of your mouse, please complete your application by clicking on the Submit Application to MMRRC button.

5. MMRRC Strain Donation Coordinator (contact for strain submissions) sacoord@mmrrc.org (207) 288-6308.

Please direct all inquiries to:

Jonathan D. Pollock, Ph.D.
Chief
Genetics and Molecular Neurobiology Research Branch
Division of Basic Neuroscience and Behavioral Research
National Institute on Drug Abuse
6001 Executive Blvd.
Bethesda, MD 20892
Phone: 301-435-1309
FAX: 301-594-6043
E-mail: jpollock@mail.nih.gov