Establishing a Knockout Catalog for Economy & Efficiency in Research
As the leader in custom genetically engineered mouse and rat models, Cyagen has generated thousands of custom knockout (KO), knockin (KI), and transgenic rodent lines for its customer base that covers over 2,000 universities and companies worldwide. This rapid growth has seen the number of publications citing Cyagen in high-impact journals such as Nature, Cell and Science increase to over 3,400 in record time.
Driven by our commitment to technological innovation, we embarked on a project to replace the manual micro-injection of fertilized eggs with high throughput electroporation in mid-2015. We successfully established and cryopreserved 100 strains of CRISPR-AI knockout mouse sperms by combining high throughput electroporation with gene knockout strategies generated by AlphaKnockout, our proprietary AI (artificial intelligence) gene targeting expert system, and special ovulation induction technologies.
Encouraged by the success of the first 100 cases, we decided to create the Cyagen Knockout Catalog with the goal to cryopreserve strains covering most mouse genes. In under two years, we successfully established and cryopreserved over a thousand custom KO strains from which live mice are provided as fast as three (3) months. Moreover, we’re currently working to include cryopreserved KO rat sperms.
With the introduction of Cyagen Knockout Catalog Models, we hope to expand the scope of our services beyond custom model generation in order to provide more comprehensive offerings for both research institutions and pharmaceutical corporations.
Key Innovations that Enable our Premier Knockout Catalog Models
Cyagen has been devoted to advancing our technical capabilities since our founding in 2005. We not only work hard to improve our production efficiency, but constantly seek new ways to reduce the use of animals to enhance animal welfare. Moreover, we’re actively applying artificial intelligence and bioinformatics to promote the use of these tools in advancing biotechnology. Below we have just a few reasons why Cyagen has rapidly become the world’s leading commercial company in custom mouse generation services, which have also contributed to our establishing a modern repository of ready-to-use mouse models.
1. AlphaKnockout- gene targeting expert system assisted by TH-2 supercomputer
AlphaKnockout is a gene targeting expert system developed by Cyagen Biosciences for designing gene knockout strategies based on artificial intelligence (AI). Supported by the powerful processing capacity of Tianhe-2 supercomputer, it can generate and display gene knockout strategies in just a few seconds. This AI strategy design tool has significantly accelerated the Cyagen Knockout Model Catalog project.
2. High-throughput Electroporation Technology
Traditional microinjection requires manual introduction of genetic material into zygotes. thereby limiting its efficiency. We have developed a high throughput electroporation procedure suitable for mammalian zygotes - this technique allows large-scale transfections of mouse zygotes and eliminates the need for manual injections, boosting operational efficiency.
3. Highly Efficient Method for Harvesting Zygotes
Research has shown that using inhibitory antiserum (IAS) and conventional super ovulation hormones (PMSG & HCG) greatly increases mouse ovulation. Cyagen has partnered with well-known biological reagent companies to develop and optimize new reagents to increase ovulation. As a result, the number of donor zygotes harvested by Cyagen is 2-3 folds higher - allowing us to significantly reduce the number of mice used.
4. New & Improved Cryopreservation Technique
Building on our proprietary Noncontrolled-Rate Protein-Free Cryopreservation Media, we have developed optimized cryopreservation techniques for mouse sperm and embryos which have greatly improved stability and increased cryorecovery birth rates.
Introducing Cyagen Knockout Catalog Models
Cyagen’s innovative mouse sperm cryorecovery technology builds on our accumulated experience in custom animal model generation, providing over 1,200 custom KO strains from which live mice have already been available to researchers in Asia for over 3 years. We are excited to open up our catalog of KO models to end clients in the Americas and Europe!
Advantages of our Ready-to-Use Catalog Models:
Reliable
- Over 1,200 established lines eliminate risks associated with model generation process
- Guaranteed models: validated genotyping data available upon request
Efficient
- Deliverables: ≥3 HET mice in as fast as 3 months
- Reduced paperwork: inquire online to place an order
Economical
- 100% pure B6 background eliminates need for backcrossing – most repositories have mixed backgrounds
- Inexpensive: Cost of catalog lines cannot be beaten by any model generation approach
Cyagen’s Knockout Catalog Models are now available as searchable listings – query by your gene of interest (gene name/NCBI ID) to identify models that we have available for cryorecovery. All projects originate from cryopreserved sperm, but are deliverable as ≥3 mice. Our repository is constantly growing, so feel free to inquire about the status of any specific gene(s) knockouts not shown online for more information about pending availability.
Discover your next KO model - look-up your gene of interest on our Knockout Catalog:
