Sigma Life Science's SAGE Labs has used its proprietary CompoZr Zinc Finger Nuclease (ZFN) technology to generate knock-in rats in which foreign genes have been precisely inserted into the rat genome.
A scientific breakthrough by Sigma Advanced Genetic Engineering (SAGE) Labs represents a major step forward in the creation of transgenic animals, which may serve as more predictive models of human disease.
In a proof-of-concept study conducted by researchers at SAGE Labs, a copy of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) was inserted in a targeted fashion into the Mdr1a gene of a rat, thus creating a rat that glows under special lighting conditions.
The study, which has recently been accepted for publication, opens the door to a variety of new applications including the tagging of genes with reporters such as GFP to measure gene expression patterns and replacement of rat genes with humanised versions.
Although rats have long been the model organism of choice for disease research, scientists have been forced to use mouse models for over a quarter of a century due to their amenability to genetic manipulation.
The creation of rats with gene deletions, commonly called 'knock-outs', using ZFN technology was first published in Science in 20092, and the ability to create rats with new genes introduced in their genome represents a progression in ZFN technology, allowing sophisticated genetic engineering of higher-level organisms and providing scientists with a choice of model organisms that can be used to investigate different diseases.
Sigma Life Science's CompoZr ZFN technology has repeatedly been shown to make highly targeted mutations and this breakthrough from SAGE Labs puts ZFN technology on par with classic ES cell-based gene-targeting techniques in terms of application flexibility.
SAGE Labs will use this technology, combined with its SAGEspeed model creation process, to produce a number of off-the-shelf rat models for use in the study of human diseases, as well as custom models for customers.
