Taconic Biosciences, a global leader in providing genetically engineered mouse model and service solutions, announces the launch of several new inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) animal models.

As a fully-licensed provider of CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology, Taconic scientists knocked out the mouse Il10 gene to generate a spontaneous colitis mouse models.  The new knockout models were created on Taconic’s B6 (C57BL/6NTac) and BALB/c (BALB/cAnNTac) backgrounds, and are available at both the Excluded Flora (EF) and Germ Free (GF) health standards.  Beyond the scientific benefits, Taconic is also making them easy to access by offering these models to commercial, contract research organization (CRO), and academic institutions under a simple label license.  This represents a departure from the license requirements for Il10 knockouts from other animal model providers.

“In order for animal models to drive drug discovery they need to be both scientifically sound and accessible to the research community.  Taconic checks both of those boxes with the launch of these Il10 knockouts, underscoring the company’s extensive metabolic and microbiome portfolio and commitment to providing our customers with the best animal model solutions to accelerate discoveries for the prevention and treatment of disease,” commented Dr. Michael Seiler, vice president of commercial products.

Complete information on the Il10 knockout on the B6 background is immediately available on Taconic’s website, and the model built on the BALB/c background will be available in Fall 2018.

The Taconic IBD portfolio includes standard strains such as the B6 for chemically-induced colitis, Rag2 knockouts or C.B-17 scids for adoptive transfer colitis, and MDR1A for spontaneous colitis.  Additionally, Taconic also supports metabolic research through an extensive portfolio of microbiome products and services.  Launching these Il10 knockouts underscores Taconic’s leadership providing solutions in the metabolic disease field.   According to the CDC, between 1 and 1.3 million people suffer from IBD in the United States (https://www.cdc.gov/ibd/ibd-epidemiology.htm), with global prevalence a major focus for the pharmaceutical industry, representing a significant market opportunity.