Facility Details

Mouse Genome Engineering (MGE) Core Facility at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) is one of the leading transgenic core facilities in the world because, it not only offers model generation services but, it also develops newer transgenic methods and streamlines them into services that can be easily adapted, and performed by technical staff, at any transgenic core facility for routine use.

The research staff and the director of MGE core facility, in collaboration with a similar team at the Tokai University, Japan, have developed several breakthrough genome editing methods. Two notable contributions, Easi-CRISPR (Efficient additions with ssDNA inserts CRISPR) and GONAD (Genome editing via Oviductal Nucleic Acids Delivery) that were published during the recent 5 years (2 articles each in Genome Biology and Nature Protocols) are collectively cited over 400 times, accessed over 75,000 times, and are regarded as landmark papers in the field, redefining the traditional methods of generating generically engineered mouse models. Several hundreds of core facilities around the world have adapted these simplified methods and protocols, as their routine services. Being a leader in this field, and being a role model core, MGE core has attracted dozens of collaborations, within and outside the university, and it serves investigators across the globe.

Services offered: The MGE core offers end-to-end services related to all aspects of mouse model generation and mouse molecular genetics. Services include designing, construct generation, microinjection, genotyping, breeding to segregate mosaic mice, re-genotyping F1 offspring, generating figures & writing methods section for grants/manuscripts and consultation & knowledge-sharing with the PIs' team on their model/s. The MGE Core also performs cryopreservation of mouse embryos and sperm, IVF and rederivation of cryopreserved germplasm.

Links to a few landmark papers on the mouse genome engineering methods developed at UNMC MGE core facility and in collaboration with Dr. Masato Ohtsuka, Tokai University, Japan.
https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13059-017-1220-4
https://www.nature.com/articles/nprot.2017.153
https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13059-018-1400-x
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41596-019-0187-x
https://currentprotocols.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/0471142905.hg1507s83

A short video about Easi-CRISPR and GONAD technologies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0QXpkoPMPY&ab_channel=UNMCEDU

Sample publications of mouse models created using the protocols and methods developed in house (e.g., Easi-CRISPR).
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21173-9
https://www.eneuro.org/content/8/1/ENEURO.0221-20.2021
https://journals.biologists.com/dev/article/147/13/dev191015/224303/Slc26a9P2ACre-a-new-CRE-driver-to-regulate-gene
https://elifesciences.org/articles/45946
https://academic.oup.com/hmg/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/hmg/ddab077/6206639
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-11962-8

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12035-018-1346-8

Invited review articles relevant to mouse genome engineering technologies:
https://journals.biologists.com/dmm/article/12/1/dmm029462/3039/Generating-mouse-models-for-biomedical-research
http://www.jbr-pub.org.cn/article/doi/10.7555/JBR.35.20200197