Transgenics

Since the groundbreaking creation of the first transgenic organism in 1973—an Escherichia coli bacterium that expressed a Salmonella gene—transgenics have profoundly changed the world of biomedical research and opened new ways of investigating complex human diseases.

Transgenics have provided us with the means to study a broad range of human illnesses—from bipolar disorder to cancer and hyperlipidemia—in model organisms such as mice. With the help of these organisms, we are able to pinpoint a wide variety of disease-causing genes and test potential therapeutic interventions in the laboratory setting before we apply them to humans in clinical trials.

Our Research

We are a world leader in the development of transgenics animal models for biomedical research. We operate our own transgenic facility, which generates transgenic and gene-targeted mice as models of human disease for investigators from across Canada and around the globe. Our scientists are recruited from leading transgenics research institutions including the Jackson Laboratory in Maine.

Our transgenics core facility is unique in western Canada, providing mouse transgenesis including knockout capabilities together with a large breeding capacity all within a strict barrier facility. Since 2002, we have generated more than 80 unique lines of mice, and provided embryo and sperm cryopreservation services on over 135 lines of mice for 20 research groups.

There have been numerous breakthroughs in the field of transgenics realized at the CMMT. We were the first to develop a transgenic mouse model of Huntington's disease—called YAC128—which displays age and CAG-dependent phenotypes that recapitulate many features of the human disease. The progressive motor and neurodegenerative phenotype of the YAC128 mouse model of Huntington's disease makes in vivo screening of novel therapeutic approaches a viable option.

Publications

Liu L, Geisert EE, Frankfurter A, Spano AJ, Jiang CX, Yue J, Dragatsis I, Goldowitz D. A transgenic mouse class-III beta tubulin reporter using yellow fluorescent protein. Genesis 45(9):560-9. (2007) PMID 17868115

Slow EJ, van Raamsdonk J, Rogers D, Coleman SH, Graham RK, Deng Y, Oh R, Bissada N, Hossain SM, Yang YZ, Li XJ, Simpson EM, Gutekunst CA, Leavitt BR, Hayden MR. Selective striatal neuronal loss in a YAC128 mouse model of Huntington disease. Hum. Mol. Genet. 12(13):1555-67. (2003) PMID 12812983

Coutinho JM, Singaraja RR, Kang M, Arenillas DJ, Bertram LN, Bissada N, Staels B, Fruchart JC, Fievet C, Joseph-George AM, Wasserman WW, Hayden MR. Complete functional rescue of the ABCA1-/- mouse by human BAC transgenesis. J. Lipid Res. 46(6):1113-23. (2005) PMID 15772424