Free Archiving
Depositors only pay shipping costs to archive their mouse strain with us, allowing your funding to be better spent within your research group.
Secure your Mouse Lines
Cryopreserved sperm and embryos are viability tested, to ensure that each mouse strain can be rederived when required.
2-Year Grace Period
To safeguard your research, we offer a 2-year embargo on the public availability of the mouse strain.
Protect your IP with an MTA
The beneficial rights of all deposited strains are retained by the originator, protecting your IP.
Acknowledgment in Additional Publications
The primary publication details are included with the strains we distribute.
Publicly Available
Mouse strains are publicly available for distribution via the National Mouse Archive and the European Mouse Mutant Archive (EMMA).
Distribution & Archiving:
Based at the Mary Lyon Centre at MRC Harwell, the National Mouse Archive supports the centre’s primary aim to facilitate a collaborative future in mouse genetics research.
The National Mouse Archive acts as the UK node of the European Mouse Mutant Archive (EMMA) within INFRAFRONTIER, with which MRC Harwell has an ongoing long-term partnership.
Cryopreservation:
Cryopreservation of either sperm or embryos not only protects your valuable mouse strains for future use, but also enables you to reduce costs associated with ongoing colony maintenance.
The 3Rs:
Banking mice rather than keeping them on the shelf reduces the number of mice used; in addition, sharing the mice means that models are not remade, which also reduces the number of mice used. This is in line with the Reduction element of the 3Rs.
FELASA:
Our export team are experienced in transporting mice and germplasm to laboratories around the world. All our mice are specific pathogen free, having been screened in accordance with the Federation of European Laboratory Animal Science Associations (FELASA) guidelines. Additional tests for other pathogens can be performed upon request.
In addition to distributing mouse strains, we also provide allele conversion and rederivation services.
Free Archiving:
We offer free archiving for mouse strains to foster collaboration as well as improve the reproducibility of data. Archiving your lines with us would also mean protecting your samples as we store samples in two different locations. Once archived, your line can be made public immediately or after a 2-year grace period. Your archived line will be assigned a repository number, which can be used to obtain a unique Research Resource Identifier (RRID). This will ensure that your line is cited accurately in publications and that other researchers can more easily discover and use this resource.
Import & Export Numbers:
Our Partners:
Organisations with which we have a longstanding relationship.
FAQs
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What are the benefits to me?
Your mouse strain will be securely archived by a team of highly trained professionals using the latest technologies. We ensure full quality control during the freezing process to guarantee safe archiving. In addition, we handle all logistics for disseminating the strains.
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How much does it cost to archive a mouse line?
The National Mouse Archive offers a free archiving service; we only require payment of shipping costs. To improve animal welfare and significantly reduce shipping costs, material can be shipped as epididymides, or as frozen sperm or embryos, as an alternative to shipping live mice. Contact us for more information about epididymis dissections.
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Does the National Mouse Archive make a profit archiving my mouse strain?
No, the National Mouse Archive is a non-profit organisation operating on a cost-recovery basis. Costs for the dissemination of frozen materials or rederived live mice support repository maintenance and the continuation of free archiving services for future scientists.
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Does the Archive make a profit archiving my mouse strains?
No, the Harwell Archive is a non-profit entity operating on a cost recovery basis. The charges it levies for the dissemination of frozen materials or rederived live mice go towards maintaining the repository and financing the free archiving service for future generations of scientists.
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Who will be able to access my mouse strains?
Archived strains are made publicly available to the wider scientific community, but the beneficial rights of the producer are protected by a Material Transfer Agreement that all clients must sign before a strain is released from the Archive. All requests from for-profit organisations will be referred back to the depositor.
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Will for-profit organisations have access to my mouse strains?
All distribution enquiries from for-profit organisations will be forwarded to the depositor for subsequent contract negotiations. The mice will only be released once permission has been granted by the depositor.
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Will I be recognised for my work in producing these lines?
We actively promote the acknowledgement of our depositors by ensuring the institute and the primary publications are clearly displayed on our website. We also work to protect your IP by exchanging an appropriate Material Transfer Agreement when your mice are distributed to members of the scientific community.
Depositing biological resources in public archives is increasingly being recognised as an important project deliverable for many funding agencies and is being actively encouraged. Details of every strain held in the Archive are presented on the IMSR, EMMA, and MRC Harwell websites, which increases uptake by the community and the citation rate of primary references.
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Will I have to spend lots of time breeding mice to send to the Archive?
Whenever possible, the Archive will freeze strains as sperm or IVF-derived embryos. These procedures require no more than 5 mature males. However, additional breeding may be required to freeze strains carrying complex genetics. In these circumstances, if the depositor is unable to provide a sufficient number of embryo donors, the Archive may take on the responsibility of the additional breeding on their behalf.
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My project license is coming to an end. How long does the archiving process take?
This is a popular service and we cannot guarantee that we will be able to accept every strain at short notice, so it is advisable to plan ahead. Please be aware that a depositor’s Material Transfer Agreement needs to be signed before the mice are sent to MRC Harwell. Once we have received the mice, it will take approximately three months to fully archive a strain and perform all the necessary quality control tests.
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What happens if I want to retrieve one of my mouse strains?
The Archive treats all requests in the same way, even those from the original depositor, so you would be asked to pay the normal charges and may be asked to sign a Material Transfer Agreement, if you have moved to a new institution.
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Will my mouse strains be secure in your facility?
The majority of lines can be cryopreserved as spermatozoa. A line is considered fully archived when 3 to 5 mature males (30 to 50 sperm samples) are cryopreserved. If your strain is an inbred line or has a complex genetic background, we would freeze embryos. Typically this requires approximately 20 young females and 2 mature males. Mouse strains that we freeze as embryos will be considered fully archived when 250 to 300 two-cell embryos have been cryopreserved.
Cryopreserved sperm and embryos are viability tested ensuring each mouse strain can be resurrected when required. We also split our archived samples between different buildings to minimise the risk of physical damage, e.g. through fire or flooding.
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What is an MTA?
A Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) is a mechanism to facilitate the free transfer of proprietary materials and/or information between institutions, and defines the rights of the parties in respect to the use of material, confidentiality, publication, ownership of intellectual property (IP).