Advisory Committee Chair
Robert A Kesterson
Advisory Committee Members
James Collawn
Michelle Fanucchi
Steven Rowe
Bradley Yoder
Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
2017
Degree Name by School
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Heersink School of Medicine
Abstract
Rodents have been the model of choice for decades in biomedical research due to their relatively high physiological similarity to humans and amenability to genomic modification. While transgenic constructs were first used in mouse blastocysts in 1974 and the first mouse embryonic stem (ES) cell line created in 1981, the lack of reliable methods to produce ES cells or culture embryos from the rat led to the limitation of its use in spite of several advantages such as larger size and higher genetic homology with humans. Use of genetic modification has recently expanded due to the advent of tailored nucleases that induce site-specific double-stranded breaks and increase targeting efficiency by up to three orders of magnitude over conventional transgenics. Early nucleases such as zinc-fingers (ZFNs) and Transcription Activator-Like Effectors (TALENs) set the stage for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) nucleases that exhibit ease of engineering and multiplexing along with low cellular toxicity and high targeting rates. The use of these reagents circumvents the need for ES cells, which when combined with refined surgical techniques and genome exchange methods, advance the creation of genetically modified rodents.
Recommended Citation
Lambert, Laura, "Advances in the Creation and Use of Genetically Modified Rodent Models" (2017). All ETDs from UAB. 2210.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/2210