Knockout mice

Knockout mice

Knockout mice

What are knockout mice?

Knockout mice are animal models that have been genetically modified to delete or inactivate a specific gene. The term ‘knockout’ refers to knocking out the functionality of the target gene. These mouse models allow researchers to gain insight into how the loss of the gene affects physiology, behavior and disease development. Observing the characteristics of a knockout phenotype can also help researchers understand human gene expression and genetic diseases. 

knockout mice

What are knockout mice used for?

Knockout mouse models are widely used to study gene function or the role of specific genes in normal or disease physiology. For more information on research using mouse models, check out our research features and publications.

Study of gene function

Loss of function is a valuable scientific method to study gene function by comparing the knockout animal model to a wild-type mouse. Sometimes a gene of interest needs to be inactivated at a certain developmental stage or cell type for a defined phenotype of interest to be observed. Conditional knockout models enable the study of gene inactivation in a specific cell type, tissue of interest, or in a temporally controlled manner, such as a defined developmental stage from pups to adult mice.

Human disease research

Knockout mouse models have been used extensively to research human diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, arthritis and neurodegenerative diseases, and have formed the basis of many of the advances in human medicine. By creating a knockout mouse model for one of the many genes suspected of contributing to a particular human disease, scientists can investigate what effect knocking out this gene might have on the development of disease over time.

knockout mice
knockout mice

How to make conditional knockout mice?

A conditional knockout allele can be created using Cre/Lox technology, which involves inserting Lox sites to flank an essential exon or exons in a gene. The conditional knockout mice are phenotypically wild type but contain the ‘floxed’ allele in all tissues. Cre recombinase then excises the DNA between two Lox sites resulting in a non-functional knockout allele. Breeding to different Cre mice allows for the generation of full body, tissue-specific or inducible knockout mice. At Ozgene, the timelines, efficiency and animal ethics of gene targeting in ES cells have been significantly improved by the use of our proprietary goGermline™ technology.

How long does it take to generate knockout mice?

knockout mice

“No project queues – get started today!”

Ozgene’s Lean management style coupled with patented goGermline technology allows us to generate mouse models in the fastest possible time together with increased certainty of germline transmission.

Read more about Ozgene’s knockout mice

Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol.
2023 Nov 14. doi: 10.1152/ajpgi.00140.2023. Online ahead of print.

Defining a timeline of colon pathologies after keratin 8 loss: Rapid crypt elongation and diarrhea are followed by epithelial erosion and cell exfoliation

Maria A. Ilomäki, Lauri Polari, Carl-Gustaf A. Stenvall, Mina Tayyab, Kirah Kähärä, Karen M. Ridge, Diana M. Toivola
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A.
2023 Oct 3;120(40):e2306761120. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2306761120. Epub 2023 Sep 27.

Divergent roles for STAT4 in shaping differentiation of cytotoxic ILC1 and NK cells during gut inflammation

Gianluca Scarno, Julija Mazej, Mattia Laffranchi, Chiara Di Censo, Irene Mattiola, Arianna M Candelotti, Giuseppe Pietropaolo, Helena Stabile, Cinzia Fionda, Giovanna Peruzzi, Stephen R Brooks, Wanxia Li Tsai, Yohei Mikami, Giovanni Bernardini, Angela Gismondi, Silvano Sozzani, James P Di Santo, Christian A J Vosshenrich, Andreas Diefenbach, Massimo Gadina, Angela Santoni, Giuseppe Sciumè
Cells.
2023 Jun 1;12(11):1528. doi: 10.3390/cells12111528.

Corneal Edema in Inducible Slc4a11 Knockout Is Initiated by Mitochondrial Superoxide Induced Src Kinase Activation

Diego G. Ogando, Edward T. Kim, Shimin Li, Joseph A. Bonanno
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