for assistance call: 1-888-673-3444
 
Temporary Suspension of International Shipping of Live Animals
 July 08, 2024
Effective immediately: Due to continued weather-related issues negatively impacting the safety, reliability, and cost of shipping, we are temporarily suspending international shipments of live animals.   Orders may still be placed but they will not be filled until after September 1, 2024. We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your understanding.

Weather and high temperatures are also affecting domestic shipping so expect delays. The welfare of the animals is our top priority. 
Laboratory Animal Genetic Reporting (LAG-R) Guidelines Published
 July 07, 2024
The LAG-R framework (Laboratory Animal Genetic Reporting) is a set of guidelines to support more complete documentation of the genetic make-up of animals of all species that are used in research, with the aim of bolstering reproducibility, reliability, and overall scientific rigor. See Nature Communications (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-49439-y).
RRRC at Allied Genetics Conference (TAGC24)
 February 20, 2024
Stop by Booth 626 in the Exhibitor Hall at the Allied Genetics Conference (TAGC24) in National Harbor/Washington DC Metro Area on March 6-10, 2024 to discuss how the RRRC can help facilitate your research.

GRCr8: A new rat reference assembly is now available.
 February 05, 2024
GRCr8 (GenBank NCBI # GCA_036323735.1) is the latest version of the rat reference genome assembly. See the Genome Reference Consortium (GRC) blog for more details.
Happy World Rat Day!
 April 04, 2023
April 4, 2023 is World Rat Day!  The RRRC would like to acknowledge the important contributions to science and medicine made possible by the use of rats in biomedical research.
ES Cells
Several rat embryonic stem cell lines developed by Qi-Long Ying (USC) as well as cell lines isolated in-house by the RRRC are available for distribution to interested investigators.  These ES cell lines represent an important reagent for developing genetically engineered rat models. 

The Resource Center has been working with these ES cell lines to further refine methods and protocols for establishing cultures and maintaining them.  In addition, we are generating rat knock-out models and isolating new ES cell lines from different inbred and outbred strains to provide additional tools for model development. 

Germline Transmisson of a Novel Rat Embryonic Stem Cell Line Derived from Transgenic rats. Men H. Bauer BA, Bryda EC. (2012) Stem Cells Dev.  21(14):2606-2612.

Derivation of a Germline Competent Transgenic Fischer 344 Embryonic Stem Cell Line. Men, H and Bryda, EC. (2013) PLoS One 8:e56518.

Efficient generation of selection-gene-free rat knockout models by homologous recombination in ES cells. Lan H, Li S, Guo Z, Men H, Wu Y, Li N, Bryda EC, Capecchi MR, Wu S. (2016) FEBS Lett. 590(19):3416-3424.