TaconicArtemis Announces Publication In PNAS: Inducible Gene Silencing In Transgenic Rats Via RNAi

Main Category: Genetics
Article Date: 20 Nov 2008 - 6:00 PST

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TaconicArtemis GmbH, a subsidiary of Taconic today announced the publication of a scientific breakthrough achieved in a collaboration with the Universities Goettingen and Wuerzburg (Germany). For the first time it is now possible to inactivate disease-related genes in an inducible and reversible fashion in transgenic rats as rodent model organisms. These important results have now been published in the top class scientific journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" of the United States (PNAS, Reference )

The experimental work was performed in collaboration between the group of Professor Holger M. Reichardt, Universities Goettingen and Wuerzburg and TaconicArtemis GmbH, in addition to being supported by a grant from the German Ministry of Education and Science (BMBF). The publication describes the development of a lentiviral single vector system for the temporal control of ubiquitous shRNA expression. This system was used to silence the insulin receptor gene. The induction of the knock down using the chemical compound Doxycycline resulted in a type II diabetes phenotype. Withdrawal of the inducer compound lead to a reactivation of gene function, which finally resulted in the reconstitution of the health status.

"Up to now the availability of tools for loss-of-function mutations in rats was limited. The only mammalian model organism for which the required tools have been developed during the past twenty years was the mouse" said Dr. Jost Seibler, Head of the RNAi Research Department at TaconicArtemis. "The possibility to modify gene function in transgenic rats represents a major breakthrough which opens up novel scientific possibilities in academic and pharmaceutical research."

Professor Peter Stadler, CEO of TaconicArtemis said "The rat is a model organism which is highly relevant for human biology. The new transgenic RNAi models will be effective for the development of therapies to treat severe human diseases and we expect the new methods will find broad applications in pharmaceutical preclinical research and development. Contract breeding and genetic characterization, services offered through our parent company, Taconic, will allow us to make these models available to academia and pharmaceutical companies."

The grant from the German Government supports a major research effort with the aim to develop new RNAi-based technologies to functionally modify the genome of transgenic rats. Partners in the program are Professors Holger M. Reichardt (University of Goettingen) and Michael Bader (Max-Delbrueck-Zentrum, Berlin) and TaconicArtemis GmbH.

About TaconicArtemis

TaconicArtemis offers custom made genetically modified mouse and rat models as in vivo genetic model systems for use at various stages of the drug discovery process or academic research. Mouse models generated by the ArteMice™ platform are being used to provide highly relevant in vivo data for gene target function, compound efficacy and on/off target-related side effects. These data contribute in a significant way to reducing attrition in drug research. TaconicArtemis customers include leading pharmaceutical companies, biotech firms and academic institutions in Europe, the United States and Japan. TaconicArtemis is a Germany-based subsidiary of Taconic Farms, Inc., Hudson N.Y.

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