Scientists in Japan cloned a mouse from a drop of blood. Moving blood cells taken from the tail of the mouse donor were used to create the clone, said researchers from the center Ricken Bioresources. Some time ago the same scientists have created nearly 600 exact genetic copies of a mouse.

Mice were cloned from different sources of donor cells, including white blood cells of the lymph nodes, bone marrow and liver. Japanese researchers studied whether the moving blood cells can be used for cloning. Their goal was to find an easy source of donor cells for cloning valuable scientifically types of laboratory mice.

Scientists led by Atsuo Ogura of Bioresources Rikes center in Tsukuba, blood taken from the tail of a mouse donor, isolated white blood cells and used kernel cloning experiments using the same technique as for the cloning of Dolly the sheep in Edinburgh.

The process, known as somatic cell nuclear transfer involving transfer of the nucleus from a cell in the adult body as blood cells or skin unfertilized egg, which was removed the nucleus. Scientists, whose research was published in the journal Biology of Reproduction, said that it shows for the first time that mice can be cloned using the nucleus of peripheral blood cells.

"These cells can be used to clone immediately after isolation, without requiring euthanasia of donor" complemented researchers.

Targatt provides a complete range of gene targeting services in rats to generate transgenic knock-in and knock-out rat models.

Rats are more versatile research model animals than mice since they are physiologically more similar to humans. The recent isolation of rat embryonic stem (ES) cells opened the doors to the generation of transgenic rats and we are proud to be one of the first providers of an all-inclusive transgenic rat generation service. Our competence in gene-targeting vector design coupled with our expertise in culturing rat ES cells allows us to offer a high-quality customized service for the generation of transgenic knock-in and knock-out rats.

Using our proprietary germline competent rat ES cell lines we can create your customized transgenic rat model, including

• - Constitutive knockin/out
• - Conditional knockin/out
• - Inducible knockin/out
• - Point mutations
• - Random integration
• - Insertion of reporter genes
• - Humanized rat models
• - Disease rat models
• 

We take great pride in offering you the highest level of service and we are committed to ensuring the success of your transgenic rat project. Our service includes an initial project assessment based on your model requirements. A dedicated PhD level project manager will discuss available gene targeting vector design strategies and will update you continuously throughout the project.

We provide the most flexible customized service options whether you’d like us to do all the work or are on a tight budget and prefer doing some steps yourself.

 Full Transgenic Rat Generation Service Includes:

• - Gene targeting vector design, construction and sequencing
• - Rat ES cell targeting, screening and expansion of positive rat ES cell clones
• - Karyotyping of targeted rat ES cells
• - Chimera production via blastcyst injection
• - Chimera breeding for germline transmission
• - Genotyping of offspring
• - Transfer of heterozygous targeted rats to the customer
• - Optional: breeding to generate homozygous rats

All our animals are housed in a facility that is accredited by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) International, has an Assurance on file with the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW), and is a registered research facility with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

We also offer Knock-in/Knock-out Mouse and Transgenic Mouse (Random Insertion) services. For more information please contact us.