Sigma Life Science and the Jackson Laboratory (JAX) have announced a joint agreement allowing JAX to distribute mouse models created using Sigma's proprietary zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) technology.
ZFN technology allows transgenic mice to be made in a third of the time previously required and has led to an increase in the number of models being produced, generating a need for key distributors to provide access to this new set of animals.
JAX currently has more than 5,000 mouse models available to the scientific community, and this arrangement is expected to extend the collection by enabling researchers to donate ZFN-enabled mouse models to JAX for archiving and distribution.
The agreement between the organisations is also expected to enable customers to focus more time and resources on their research, avoiding the burden of maintaining mouse colonies for the wider research community while still fulfilling government funding obligations.
It also increases the scope of the CompoZr technology for creation of knockout organisms and complements the Sage Labs collection of knockout rat models.
