PERTH, Australia & HEIDELBERG, Germany–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Ozgene and Gen-H are pleased to announce our working partnership supporting Ozgene’s new OzBIG capability. Ozgene Pty Ltd is a privately held CRO based in Perth, Australia providing custom genetically engineered mice for academic and commercial researchers worldwide. Gen-H GmbH is a privately held CRO based in Heidelberg, Germany providing genetically engineered bacterial clones and E. coli strains. The partnership leverages the expertise of both companies to enable the development of sophisticated mouse models with targeted modifications up to 240 kb of the mouse genome for research in basic science, human disease, and drug discovery and development. We envision near term potential to increase the upper kb limit of the capability.

OzBIG is an advancement in gene targeting aimed at generating mouse models with very large 20 to 240 kb genomic replacements and insertions. While large genomic humanization has been the driver for most of the models developed using OzBIG, the same strategy is also being implemented to build large non-humanized, transgenics like complex reporters and synthetic expression systems. OzBIG vastly expands the gene set available for humanisation by enabling the humanisation of 90% of the genes in the mouse genome, compared to 10% with standard gene targeting. OzBIG combines conventional gene targeting technology with a screening platform developed at Ozgene to efficiently generate ES cell clones carrying modifications with a current upper limit of 240 kb without the use of exogenous recombinases like CRISPR.

Ozgene is an Australian company founded in 1999 with sites in Australia and the United States. Ozgene is one of the leading companies providing genetically modified mice for researchers around the world and offers a full spectrum of pre-clinical capabilities from the development of mouse models through to breeding, characterisation and phenotyping.

Gen-H is a German company founded in 2020 after operating for 17 years as the Service Unit of Gene Bridges GmbH. Gen-H’s portfolio encompasses the assembly of all types of constructs for animal models including BAC modifications and large humanizations. Gen-H also develops custom genetically engineered E. coli strains.

OzBIG: www.ozgene.com/2022/06/big-genomic-replacement-ozbig
Ozgene: www.ozgene.com
Gen-H: www.gen-h.de