Reductions on shipping costs for
Interstate clients! 

Interstate clients we have some good news!

ABR has been working with Jetpets to reduce the cost of shipping mice interstate.
 
HOW – To achieve the price reduction ABR plans to deliver your mice to the Jetpets office in Sydney at a reduced rate.  
To facilitate this process, we will be consolidating interstate deliveries to one day per week. We will be sending the shipments to you on a Tuesday for delivery overnight on a Wednesday.
  
WHY - By consolidating our interstate shipments we can pass a saving of approximately $50 to $55 per shipment to each facility!
 
Please Note: ABR can still send interstate orders other days if needed by asking Jetpets to pick up from ABR (at the current pricing).

Communicating with ABR

 January 2019

There are many ways in which to communicate your needs with ABR staff depending on the nature of your communication.  

General Enquiries
ABR has two email addresses for general enquiries, each of which will be sent to multiple employees.  This allows us to ensure that emails do not go unanswered when staff are on leave.  Please use orders@abr.org.aufor enquiries about ordering animals from our Sale Strains.  For enquiries about services or other aspects of ABR's operation, please use enquiries@abr.org.au 

For telephone enquiries please call (02) 9295 8565. This is the main switchboard number from which your call can be redirected accordingly.  Please note that our office hours are 8am to 4pm Eastern Standard Time, however, you can leave a message when calling outside of these times. 

Research Colonies
For routine colony management procedures please use the Lines tab in StuartWeb. This is for instructions that don't change often and apply for the whole colony. This function generates a set of Line Instructions that our Animal Technicians can access through Stuart or on the printed rack sheets within the animal holdings. When changes are made to the Lines section a prompt is sent to our technicians to re-print the sheets.

For specific instructions about particular animals use the Communicationsplatform in StuartWeb. More complex arrangements for managing colonies should also be communicated through this platform. Please ensure that you have enabled the email notifications function by using the Manage Email Notifications button. You will receive an email with a link directly to the communication when an ABR animal technician initiates or replies to a communication. These communications are often time-sensitive questions regarding animals in your colony.  Your prompt attention to Communications is appreciated. 



It is preferable that email communications between researchers and animal technicians are kept to a minimum. Email is personalised, whereas Stuart Communications and Line Instructions can be viewed by any animal technician working in the holdings.  This is particularly important in cases where our animal technicians are on annual leave or absent through illness.  Whilst we aim to provide consistency in the senior technicians looking after research colonies, we do rotate staff through the bio bubbles for training purposes.

Complaints Procedure
As part of the NATA Accreditation process ABR has established a Complaints and Non-Conformance Register.  This is a valuable tool for tracking errors and allows us to identify if Standard Operating Procedures require modification or further training is needed for ABR staff. Following is an overview of this process.  

1.   Raising an issue.

      For Animal Orders please email orders@abr.org.au
      For Services or billing please email enquiries@abr.org.au
     

Please include all relevant details such as:

• Order Number
• Animal IDs (if relevant)
• Key Dates/Milestones
• The nature of the issue (eg, missing, sick, or deceased animals, delay in imports, validation reports)
• Photos (if relevant)
• Any communications with staff members relevant to the issue 

2.   Once this issue has been received ABR will reply with an acknowledgement of receipt and an approximate time frame for resolving the issue. 

3.   ABR will raise a ticket in our tracking system and a staff member assigned to investigate. Screenshots of all emails are saved in the issue and comments can be added as required throughout the investigation. 

4.   The assigned staff member will investigate how the issue has arisen and record all details in the ticket.

5.   The resolution of the issue will be reported back to you and a refund provided (if applicable). 

6.   Further actions such as training or modification of Standard Operating Procedures will be reported to relevant staff and acted upon accordingly. 

New to ABR - C57BL/6NJAusb

August 2018

Australian BioResources is pleased to announce the availability of the C57BL/NJAusb line in our sale strain listings. Imported from The Jackson Laboratory, the line is widely used as a background strain for developing GM mouse lines.  Please refer to the Jackson Laboratory Mouse Strain Datasheet 005304 for further information.  Orders can now be placed on StuartWeb for this line. 

ABR is now NATA Accredited

February 2018

Services can now be ordered using StuartWeb

 July 2017

ABR is pleased to introduce online ordering for Services via StuartWeb.  We will continue to accept the forms below until Tuesday the 15th of August.  All orders for services will then be online only.  Anyone wishing to order services or track the progress of their service orders will require a StuartWeb Account.  Please see Set Up Account or Stuart Web Access to download a StuartWeb access form. 

Please find a quick guide to ordering services on StuartWeb below.  For additional assistance please contact ABR on (02) 9295 8565 or at orders@abr.org.au

Ordering Services Using StuartWeb

The JAX Rag1 KO mice are now available in Australia

April 2016

Under a propagation agreement with the Jackson Laboratory, the Australian BioResources now supplies the B6.127S7-Rag1<tm1Mom>/JAusb strain (also known as B6.Rag1 or Rag1 KO) to support your research. This strain is fully backcrossed N10 onto a C57BL/6J background.

Did you know?

The Rag1 KO mice were initially developed by Dr Peter Mombaerts in the lab of Dr Susumu Tonegawa at MIT. Mice homozygous for the Rag1<tm1Mom> mutation produce no mature T cells or B cells. Their phenotype can be described as a "non-leaky" immunodeficiency.

Simultaneous Production of KO mice can now reduce costs to ~$3,000 per line

December 2015

The efficiency of CRISPR/Cas9 gene targeting means that multiple genes can be simultaneously inactivated. The MEGA (Mouse Engineering Garvan/ABR) service has now undertaken projects in which founder groups carrying 2, 3 and 4 inactivated genes have been generated from a single microinjection session.

Because microinjection and animal husbandry are our major cost, MEGA is able to offer the following prices on Level 1 projects in which multiple genes will be simultaneously targeted for inactivation.

• 1 gene   = $7,000
• 2 genes = $8,500 ($4,250 per KO)
• 3 genes = $10,000 ($3,333 per KO)
• 4 genes = $11,500 ($2,875 per KO)

As well as being the best way of producing novel KO lines, the economies from simultaneously producing multiple KO lines makes CRISPR/Cas9 a much cheaper and efficient option than importing KO lines into ABR, especially if rederivation is required. 

If you would like to take advantage of the multiple targeting option, please get in touch with either Dr David Zahra at d.zahra@garvan.org.au or Professor Rob Brink at r.brink@garvan.org.au.

MEGA has now produced 41 different GM mouse lines, 36 of these over the first 10 months of 2015

November 2015

GM mice can be produced using CRISPR/Cas9 technology at three different Project Levels:

• Level 1: Gene KOs via small frameshift deletions or larger deletions up to 5kb.
• Level 2: Small, specific edits using homologous recombination with ssDNA oligonucleotides (e.g. point mutations, peptide tags).
• Level 3: Larger alterations using homologous recombination with plasmid constructs (e.g. reporters, fluorescent protein tags, floxing).
   

MEGA Service gives first client GM mice in less than 4 months

December 2014

The first customers of the MEGA (Mouse Engineering Garvan/ABR) service have taken delivery of their genetically modified founder mice.

Of the 19 mice produced from embryos microinjected with gene-specific CRISPR/Cas9 constructs, 7 founder mice were obtained - a 37% success rate and in less than 4 months from their initial expression of interest. The CRISPR/Cas9 technology can produce constitutive knockouts, single nucleotide mutations or insertions.

For further information on the MEGA Service or to book in your project visit our Genome Editing page.