PSOM Cores - Winter 2018 Newsletter

Winter 2018 Newsletter

Welcome to Biomedical Research Cores

The Perelman School of Medicine's 23 biomedical research cores offer a wide variety of services including access to state-of-the-art equipment and instrumentation, technical expertise and training and education all designed to support your research.

In this edition of our newsletter, and in future newsletters, we will be highlighting exciting news and developments across our research cores. Thank you for reading and providing feedback!

In This Issue:

Double Feature Cores Spotlight
- CRISPR Cas9 Mouse Targeting Core
- Transgenic and Chimeric Mouse Facility
iLab Update
Announcements
- Joint Cores Fair – Save the Date!
- Survey for Users of Core Services

Double Feature Cores Spotlight :

CRISPR Cas 9 Mouse Targeting Core and Transgenic and Chimeric Mouse Facility

Our newest PSOM core established in early 2017, the CRISPR Cas9 Mouse Targeting Core, is led by Dr. Jorge Henao-Mejia, Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and works in close partnership with the existing PSOM Transgenic and Chimeric Mouse Facility of which Dr. Jean Richa is the technical director. This exciting partnership provides the research community with access to the latest technologies available for editing the genome of one-cell mouse embryos for the purpose of producing novel models such as knock-out (KO), conditional KO, and knockin (KI) mice.

The CRISPR/Cas9 technology has revolutionized the way genome editing is performed. This technology significantly reduces the time and the cost required to generate genetically engineered mice, allowing scientists to test more precise hypotheses in vivo. The CRISPR core, in partnership with the Transgenic and Chimeric Mouse Facility, will offer a variety of services including targeting design, sgRNA preparation, Cas9 mRNA generation, DNA repair template preparation, microinjection, and genotyping/screening for targeted mice.

The Transgenic and Chimeric Mouse Facility provides a centralized service to efficiently produce infection-free transgenic, chimeric, and genome-edited strains of mice. These mice carry randomly inserted transgenes and/or site-specific alterations in the mouse genome of specific interest to Penn researchers. The Facility offers services including DNA pronuclear injection into fertilized oocytes (along with genotyping of transgenic founders), ES cell injection into blastocysts, cytoplasmic/pronuclear injections into fertilized oocytes of CRISPR-Cas9 mix (gRNA, Cas9RNA, ssDNA/dsDNA templates), embryo and sperm cryopreservation, in vitro fertilization, and re-derivation of live and cryopreserved lines.

For further information about the services provided by this new partnership, please contact Dr. Jorge Henao-Mejia or Dr. Jean Richa.

iLab Update

iLab is an enterprise web-based management tool designed to support operations for Core facilities and other shared resources. Currently, iLab is successfully utilized at 34 of the top 50 NIH funded institutions in the US and at 33 NCI-designated cancer centers. Their infrastructure helps more than 170 research institutions world-wide serve tens of thousands of researchers via the iLab platform.

This system offers streamlined billing and invoicing, usage tracking, equipment reservations, service requests, and reporting for facility operators and internal and external researchers. Importantly, we have successfully completed the process to allow CAMS to send lab user and account information to iLab to allow for this essential interface with our Penn systems. To date, we have five cores that are online with iLab with three more facilities to go live this Spring, all listed below.