Our Policies

UC Gene Targeted Mouse Service Anonymity Policy:

• We do not require our clients to disclose the gene that they are targeting. We only need to know the selection strategy to be employed for obtaining ES cell clones. We welcome corporate clients and security coded gene knockouts.
• ES cell clones are given coded identifications when they are picked.
• Since we are uninterested in the identity of your gene we do not guarantee uniqueness or inform an investigator if the gene has been targeted before. Frankly, in many cases we would not know this information.
• Our entire staff understands that our conversations and communications with our clients will exclusively deal with their personal project only. Under no circumstances will the details of a targeting be discussed with any person other than the client contracting the work.

Chimeric Mouse Policies:

• We do not harem breed the chimeric males. Each male is housed with one female.
• We will only breed a chimera to 50 pups without any germline transmission. After that it's up to the client to continue breeding the animal at the client's facility.
• We will not continue chimera breeding after 50 ES cell derived pups have been born.
• We will ship chimeras to our clients for harem breeding in house.
• We will not send all known valuable mice in one shipment in case of an accident in shipping.
• We prefer not shipping mice under 4 weeks of age.

GeneTargeting Policies:

• Gene targeting is scheduled on a first come, first served basis. We will not entertain requests to have your gene targeting moved up in the schedule.
• We will only hold unscreened ES cell clones for a maximum of six months on site. After that time they will be shipped to the client or disposed.
• We will only expand 6 targeted clones per targeting. Additional targeted clones can be sent to the client for safe keeping.
• Whenever possible we do our gene targeting electroporation in two different ES cell lines for each targeting construct.