Transgenic mice are generated at our Institute by the Core Facility for Conditional Mutagenesis (CFCM), whose further implementation is one of the goals of OMC. Transgenic and knock-out mice are widely used because of their high impact on the understanding of protein function, and as models for human diseases. The generation of a transgenic mouse necessitates the use of expensive and high−tech instrumentation and requires high technical capabilities. The San Raffaele Core Facility for Conditional Mutagenesis (CFCM) was born in 1999 with the scope to support research using mouse models. The presence of a specialized center allows optimizing costs, the success rate and the reduction of the number of mice used. The facility is located in the new animal house at Dibit2 of the San Raffaele Hospital, in a dedicated room where only CFCM staff enters. The animal house contains 2 microinjections workstation, small equipment and a colony room for maintenance and breeding of transgenic mice. All mice generated are Specific Pathogen or Specific and Opportunistic Pathogen Free.

CFCM staff routinely performs gene-targeting projects, microinjects DNA creating transgenic models and rederives mice making them compatible with the sanitary standards of the receiving animal house. Further, the facility performs cryopreservations and isolates embryonic stem cells from murine lines. For several years now, CFCM has collaborated with an intramural molecular biology lab to optimize the design and generation of targeting/transgenic constructs.