Guest Editors
Sarah Hart-Johnson
The Francis Crick Institute/ Genetic Modification Service
Sarah Hart-Johnson is Head of Colony Management Services at the Francis Crick Institute in London, a post she has held since 2018. This is part of the Biological Research Facility which has responsibility for all animal research, and her role focuses on best practice in breeding mice and ensuring reliable research models through the use of technologies such as Cryopreservation, rederivation and genetic monitoring. Prior to that she headed up the Genetic Modification Service at the Crick and the Transgenic Service at the MRC’s National Institute for Medical Research specialising in Cryopreservation, ART for rodents and Zebrafish and gene delivery. She is passionate about communicating best practice in the fields of generation and maintenance of Genetically altered laboratory animals and has been a LASA (UK Laboratory Animal Science Association) meeting convenor for >10 years, served on the board of the ISTT (International Society of Transgenic Technologies) and has worked with the RSPCA and NC3Rs on several projects, the latest being the NC3Rs Colony Management hub and guidance on Sharing and archiving of GA mice. She graduated in 2001 with a BSc in Molecular Biology and Genetics followed by a MSc in Human Reproductive Biology before moving into the transgenic field.
Katharine Mankelow
The Francis Crick Institute/ Genetic Modification Service
Katharine Mankelow studied Zoology at the University of Southampton and joined the National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) in 2011 as a research technician within the Procedural Services Department. Here she focused on murine embryo and sperm cryopreservation, and micromanipulation of preimplantation stage mouse embryos. In 2014, she managed the large-scale rederivation programme of 1,500 lines from NIMR to the new Francis Crick Institute in London. Katharine is now a Senior Manager of the Transgenic Service within the Genetic Modification Service at the Francis Crick Institute, responsible for managing and archiving over 5,000 cryopreserved lines, managing the rederivation programme and assisting in the production of genetically modified lines here at the Crick. Katharine is also a LASA section convenor for the LASA-ASTG meetings.
Collection Overview
Genetically Altered mice are the main stay of medical research, allowing us to delve deeper into the mechanics of gene function in health and disease. There are over 80,000 genetically altered mice strains registered with the International Mouse Strain resource, and the advent of CRISPR means the rate of new strain development continues apace. Maintaining these lines must by necessity, as well as for economic and animal welfare reasons, require the use of assisted reproductive technology to allow us to reliably archive lines, share them and recover them as needed. The aim of this collection is to provide an overview of emerging and established protocols required to successfully cryopreserve, rederive and expand Genetically altered mouse strains with protocols to assist with rescuing troublesome strains as well.
Articles
