Prerequisites
While NTS can give a cost estimate, unique and novel projects involving living animals are not completely predictable. Thus, make sure you have some spare funds for unforeseen events. Fees and quotes for the various services on these pages are for internal collaborators/customers. Send us an e-mail (transgenic@basalmed.uio.no), and we will get back to you with additional information.
Permits
The use of animals in research in Norway follows legislations given in "Animal Welfare Act (LOV-2009-06-19-97)" and "Regulations on the use of animals in experiments (FOR-2015-06-18-761)". The latter is equal to Articles 23 and 24 of the EU Directive 2010/63/EU.
NTS holds a permit for all animal work conducted by the center (currently FOTS id#10898). The customer is responsible for all approvals not directly related to production, preservation or reestablishment of a transgenic line. The customer is also responsible for submitting and obtaining approval for import and housing of the genetically modified organism prior to transfer of animals from NTS to the customer. NTS has no legal or ethical responsibility for the work performed on the animals after they are handed over to the customer. The customer must ensure that the following is met:
- All persons working with animals for research purposes in Norway must have appropriate training. Education in Norway follows the structure provided in the EU Education and training framework
- Generation of a new transgenic animal or import of a transgenic animal to Norway requires notification to The Norwegian Directorate of Health (in norwegian)
- In most cases, housing and experimental use of the animals, require an ethical approval from the Norwegian Food Safety Authority (in norwegian). Depending on the nature of your new model and the planned experiments this ethical approval process can be quite time consuming (~3 months).
First contact with NTS
NTS has generated information documents and service forms to assist customers. Each document gives a brief description of the procedure, what must be provided by the customer, and clarifies the administrative role and experimental procedures NTS will perform. Upon first contact, forms appropriate for the service requested will be sent out to the customer. This organization ensures that all necessary information is efficiently collected for each type of project. This organization is typical for routine services e.g. rederivation, embryo transfer, in vitro fertilization, and cryopreservation. For demanding projects, customers may have to meet representatives from NTS to clarify details.
Contracts
Technical routine work, e.g. rederivation, embryo transfer, in vitro fertilization, and cryopreservation is performed as services. Such projects are not subjected to co-authorships. NTS enters into collaborations for more demanding projects, such as generation of new transgenic models. Depending on the nature of the project, NTS may then request co-authorship for one or more authors.
For all types of services, a contract is established before work on the project commences. Research groups within University of Oslo and in the South Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority have priority, but NTS will accept all forms of outside projects on a case by case basis. If your institution would like to be part of the prioritized group, an agreement on institutional support can be set up. This will enable a quicker turnaround and lower cost for the research groups.
Technical services
Vector design and cloning
- Advice on strategies for creating transgenic lines.
- Vector design and construction (based on traditional restriction enzymes, recombineering and BAC engineering).
- Design and synthesis of sgRNAs (for CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing).
Production of genetically modified mice
- Pronucleus injection of transgenic constructs.
- Pronucleus injection for direct gene editing in embryos.
- Knock-out: co-injection of sgRNA(s) and CRISPR-Cas9 RNA.
- Mutagenesis: co-injection of sgRNA(s), CRISPR-Cas9 RNA and replacement sequence.
- Others: Injection of Zinc Finger Nucleases (ZFN) and TALENS.
- Embryonic stem cell (ES-cell) culturing prior to blastocyst injection.
- Blastocyst injection.
Maintenance of genetically modified mice
- Cryopreservation of embryos.
- Cryopreserved embryo recovery.
- Cryopreservation of sperm.
- Cryopreserved sperm recovery (In vitro fertilization, IVF).
- Long term storage of embryos and/or sperm (liquid nitrogen).
- Rederivation of genetically modified mice.
- Breeding and housing of mice.
- Transgenic screening of cells or offspring (PCR and Southern).
- Supply of C57BL/6N as well as Flp- and Cre deleter mice.
For additional clarifications, please see the description for each service.
Service Fees
Estimated costs for the above service can be found on our Service Fees page.