2012 ISTT elections for Council Member

One of our ISTT Executive Council members, Tom Fielder, is coming to the end of his first 4-year term on December 31, 2012. As a result, and according to the ISTT bylaws, we are launching the corresponding 2012 ISTT elections for this Council Member seat, to be elected from the four willing candidates identified by the ISTT Nominations Committee to stand for election to the ISTT Executive Council for a 4-year term beginning on 1 January, 2013 and finishing on December 31, 2016.

The four candidates standing for this 2012 ISTT council member election are:

• Martina Crispo (Institut Pasteur, Montevideo, Uruguay)
• Tom Fielder (University of California-Irvine, California, USA)
• Benoît Kanzler (Max Planck Institute of Immunology and Epigenetics, Freiburg, Germany)
• Wenhao Xu (University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA)

Their profiles and statements can be browsed within the members-only area of the ISTT web site. The election period begins today, May 16, 2012 and will finish on June 15, 2012. Thanks for voting!

The ISTT Nominations Committee
Thom Saunders
Jan Parker-Thornburg
Carlisle Landel

EMMA Cryopreservation Workshop: a meeting report

The EMMA (European Mouse Mutant Archive) Cryopreservation Workshop took place earlier this week in Madrid, May 7-8, at the main campus of CSIC, with an excellent success, organized by EMMA, supported by the EC-7th Framework Programme and co-sponsored by the International Society for Transgenic Technologies (ISTT). Sixty participants from many countries around the world gathered to present and discuss, in depth, the latest approaches, methodologies and techniques available for the efficient cryopreservation of mouse strains, through embryo, sperm and ovary cryopreservation. In addition to invited speakers and invited participants, the workshop was attended by delegates from EMMA nodes and 12 ISTT members. As many as 21 talks were delivered, by selected invited speakers, representing the different major archiving iniatives currently existing (EMMA, MMRRC, The Jackson Laboratory, RIKEN, APN, CMMR, AMMRA) and the research and development initiatives, as well as state-of-art protocols in the field. Presentations, abstracts and pictures from this EMMA Cryopreservation Workshop are freely available to anyone interested, from the meeting web site, and can be also accessed from ISTT and EMMA web sites. The remaining presentations will be progressively added upon receiving the approval from the corresponding guest speakers.

At EMMA, we envisaged this cryopreservation workshop as a forum to brainstorm and discuss in depth the latest technological advances in cryopreservation, including sperm and embryo cryopreservation, updated IVF methods and related techniques as ovary cryopreservation, laser-assisted and piezo-driven ICSI, transportation of frozen material and other technical and logistic challenges relevant to the operation of current mouse embryo/sperm archives. We believed we entirely fulfilled the expectations and all participants went back home, to their research institutions, loaded with new ideas, updated solutions and suggested improvements that can be explored and applied for a most efficient management of a mouse embryo/sperm cryopreservation bank. All participants agreed to continue organizing this type of focused workshops in the near future. The ISTT will be always there, ready to support these very interesting initiatives.

Lluis Montoliu, EMMA Spanish node

RGB-Net: A European funded COST Action focused on Rabbit Genome Biology, including Transgenic Rabbits

A COST Action entitled “A Collaborative European Network on Rabbit Genome Biology – RGB-Net” has been recently funded by the European Union.

Why a COST Action on Rabbit Genome Biology? The rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is a key species in biology. Basic discoveries have been made investigating this mammal whose genome has been recently sequenced. The rabbit is a livestock, an animal model, a wild resource, a pest and a fancy animal and comprises a large number of breeding stocks/lines. This COST action brings together experts in all rabbit research areas and in other complementary research fields (breeders, geneticists, bioinformaticians, physiologists, evolutionists, embryologists, immunologists, industry experts, etc.) in order to facilitate the transition of rabbit genomic information from experimental data into usable benefits and applications by means of networking expertise.

Four Working Groups are focused on:

• 1) the refinement of the European rabbit genome resource and the development of genome-based platforms
• 2) genetic aspects in meat, fur and pet rabbits and biodiversity resources
• 3) the rabbit as a model in basic biology and human diseases and as a tool for biotechnology applications and
• 4) genetic and comparative genomic aspects for the study, exploitation and management of wild lagomorphs.

The expected outcome is a coordination of rabbit research activities and a transfer of knowledge which will produce a strong European added value across a broad spectrum of biology research fields, including applications and new developments on transgenic rabbits, as defined by Working Group 3 that enlists many experts in this field. RGB-Net is organizing workshops, meetings, training schools and can provide funds for short term scientific mobility.

RGB-Net is open to all interested scientists from European and non-European countries. Contacts: Prof. Luca Fontanesi, Chair of RGB-Net; Prof. Zsuzsanna Bosze, RGB-Net WG3 Leader and ISTT Member.
Additional details can be obtained from RGB-Net website.

The TT2013 meeting in China: progress and updated information

The organization of the 11th Transgenic Technology meeting (the TT2013 meeting), to be held in Guangzhou, PR China, on February 25-27, 2013,  is progressing well. Prof. Ming Zhao (Southern Medical University in Guangzhou), Chair of the TT2013 Organization, and all his colleagues in the various advisory and supporting committees, are doing a great job and, hence, from the International Society for Transgenic Technologies (ISTT) we are sure that the TT2013 meeting is going to be yet another great transgenic conference for all of us to learn, discuss and enjoy.  The preliminary TT2013 meeting web page already informs about the confirmed topics and speakers that will be in Guangzhou. These will be regularly updated as we receive the confirmations from all invited speakers. Registration is expected to be open in June. The registration scheme and registration fees will be similar to the previous TT2011 meeting. The TT2013 meeting will be followed by a 3-day practical hands-on course on basic techniques in transgenesis, coordinated by Dr. Wenhao Xu (University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA).

Currently, the confirmed topics and speakers attending the TT2013 meeting include:

Meeting Topics

•  Sperm Cryopreservation and IVF
• KOMP ES cell clones performance
• Epigenetics and Transgenesis
• Effects of in vitro culture on mammalian embryos
• Targeted nucleases, ZFNs and TALENs, in transgenesis
• Transgenic pigs and TALENs
• Transgenic mice and ZFNs
• KO pigs and ZFNs
• Zebrafish and TALENs
• Ethics, animal welfare and regulations
• Health monitoring protocols and transgenic facilities
• Non-rodent transgenesis
• Primate chimeras and ES cells
• Rat functional genomic initiatives
• Animal models of human diseases
• ES and iPS cells
• transposon (PiggyBac)-mediated mutagenesis
• Round-table discussion: Running a transgenic facility
• Running a transgenic facility: The business aspect of running a transgenic unit
• Running a transgenic facility: managing errors, difficulties
• Running a transgenic facility: Staying on the cutting edge of technology while still maintaining basic services
• Rat/mouse chimeras and iPS/ES cells
• Overview of cre-transgenic mouse lines resources
• China/Asia/Oceania in the International Mouse Functional Genomics Consortia
•  3-days hands-on practical workshop on transgenesis procedures after the TT2013 meeting
• ..

Confirmed Speakers

• Allan Bradley (Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton/Cambridge, UK)
• Alan Colman (Institute of Medical Biology, Singapore)
• Scott Fahrenkrug (Recombinetics, Minneapolis, MN, USA)
• Malcolm France (Sydney University, Sydney, Australia)
• Xiang Gao (Model Animal Research Center of Nanjing University, Nanjing, PR China)
• Alfonso Gutiérrez-Adán (Dep. Animal Reproduction, INIA, Madrid, Spain)
• Yann Herault (Institut Clinique de la Souris, ICS and IGBMC, Illkirch/Strasbourg, France)
• Dietmar Kappes (Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA)
• Liangxue Lai (Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Science, Guangzhou, PR China)
• Kent Lloyd (University of California, Davis, CA, USA)
• Shoukhrat Mitalipov (Oregon National Primate Research Center, OHSU, Beaverton, OR, USA)
• Naomi Nakagata (Center for Animal Resources and Development, Kumamoto University, Japan)
• Catheryn O’Brien (The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Melbourne, Australia)
• Masaru Okabe (Genome Information Research Center Research, Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan)
• Jan Parker-Thornburg (MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA)
• Ling Sun (Institute of Developmental Biology and Molecular Medicine, Fudan University, Shanghai, PR China)
• Bo Zhang (College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, PR China)
• Qi Zhou (The State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China)

From the ISTT, as in previous TT meetings, we will also promote and support the participation of ISTT members by sponsoring several registration awards for ISTT Members. Deadline for submitting applications for these ISTT Registration Awards is October 15, 2012. Instructions to apply can be found at the corresponding web page of the ISTT web site.

Please, write down the dates of the TT2013 meeting: February 25-27, 2013, and make sure you don’t miss this conference!. See you all in China next year!

II SPCAL Meeting on Laboratory Animal Science, Lisbon, Portugal, May 24-25, 2012

Dear Colleagues,

The Portuguese LAS association – Sociedade Portuguesa de Ciências em Animais de Laboratório (SPCAL) – is organizing its second National Scientific Meeting on May 24 and 25, in Lisbon. The moto is Care for Laboratory Animals if you Care for your Research and, by covering a wide range of subjects, the Meeting is targeted to all those working with laboratory animals: from LAS professionals to researchers.

The meeting will he held in English, hosting many well known speakers. We would like to take this opportunity to invite you to take part in the program with posters and/or oral communications. These should be submitted though the website described below.

You can download the Meeting’s Poster and Program. All relevant information and contacts may be found on SPCAL’s website, on the dedicated tab.

We look forward to welcoming you, and we ask your collaboration in distributing this email within your colleagues, institutions, and relevant scientific societies/associations.

Kindest regards

Dolores Bonaparte
Sociedade Portuguesa de Ciências em Animais de Laboratório (SPCAL), Organizing Committee

Membership Certificates now available to ISTT members

Members of the International Society for Transgenic Technologies (ISTT) have now the possibility to request their unique Membership Certificates, through the members-only area.

Recently published in Cell, the paper titled “Life in the Fast Lane: Mammalian Disease Models in the Genomics Era” by Lukas Dow and Scott Lowe (vol 148, issue 6, 16 March 2012, p. 1099-1109) provides an excellent overview of the various methods and techniques that are available to develop rodent models of disease, as diagrammed in the picture here from the same paper.  It’s a worthwhile read for anyone in our field.

Registration form (doc, pdf) to be sent to: tmcf@unibas.ch before May 21, 2012

63rd AALAS National Meering, Minneapolis, MN, November 3-8, 2012

AALAS, or the American Association for Laboratory Animal Sciences is hosting their 63rd Annual Meeting this fall.

For ISTT members planning on attending the AALAS national meeting in Minneapolis MN (USA) in November 3-8, 2012, we would love for you to attend our panel discussion on communications between veterinarians and transgenic facility managers. ISTT members, Jan Parker-Thornberg (MD Anderson) and Aimee Stablewski (Roswell Park Cancer Institute) will be part of the panel discussion along with Rob Taft from the Jackson Laboratory and our veterinarians (Kate Naff, Linda Waterman and Sandra Buitrago, respectively).

AALAS has thousands of applications for presentations so we are fortunate that ours was accepted. This is an ISTT-supported activity.  Please come and participate with us.

Melissa Larson (University of Kansas Medical Center), the ISTT member representative before AALAS, will be also taking charge of our ISTT booth this year.  Thank you to Melissa, for this great help.  If any ISTT member will be attending the meeting, and would like to help Melissa, please email us to volunteer at: aalas@transtechsociety.org

Information about the National AALAS meeting:

Each fall since 1950, the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS) has held its annual National Meeting. During the five days of the meeting, members and nonmembers come together to enjoy the workshops, lectures, poster sessions, and exhibits. The program is designed to have topics relevant to the entire membership. Exhibitors have an opportunity to interact with AALAS members from the academic community, research institutions, government organizations, and commercial companies.

The AALAS National Meeting is the largest gathering in the world of professionals concerned with the production, care, and use of laboratory animals.  Please see the AALAS meeting website for details on how to register

The International Society for Transgenic Technologies (ISTT) is an  AALAS affiliate organization.

We hope to see you there!!

1. C57BL/6J versus C57BL/6NJ

(coding and UTR regions only, 4341 SNPs)

2. C57BL/6J versus C57BL/6NJ (all available SNPs that are polymorphic, 152001 SNPs)
3. 13 C57BL/6 mouse related strains, J and N, including: C57BL/6J, C57BL/6ByJ, C57BL/6JArc, C57BL/6JBomTac, C57BL/6JCrl, C57BL/6JEiJ, C57BL/6JOlaHsd, C57BL/6JRccHsd, C57BL/6NCrl, C57BL/6NHsd, C57BL/6NJ, C57BL/6NNIH, C57BL/6NTac

The entire community of researchers in biomedicine using mouse genetics greatly appreciates the most useful service and helpful web resources provided by the MPD team. Thanks a lot colleagues!