Strain Distribution

On this webpage you can find the  EMMA strain list with further information on the strain you are interested in. When clicking on the ‘order’ button for the appropriate strain you will be guided to an online request form which you can quickly fill in and send to EMMA through the website. The request form will ask you for contact information and which type of material you would like to receive from EMMA. After receipt of your request, EMMA will contact you within two weeks.

EMMA strongly promotes the shipment of frozen material in an attempt to minimise the welfare issues associated with the movement of live animals. You can obtain sperm or embryos as frozen samples with a delivery time of four weeks. If you order live mice after rederivation EMMA will deliver within 4 to 6 months. In general, service requests will not be processed until a fully executed MTA has been received (where applicable) and either a billing address or a purchase order number has been provided by the user. Therefore please note that the delivery times given above represent the time period between the date when all paperwork is in place and when the material is ready for shipping at EMMA nodes. For special requirements (e.g. certain age, sex and/or number of live mice are required), longer service time may be expected.

The available type of materials are displayed in the strain details on the  EMMA strain list, under ‘Availability’. Some strains require special expertise to be reliably rederived from frozen samples. Therefore, EMMA distributes only rederived live animals in these cases. As default, heterozygous material is being archived and distributed.

The recommended EMMA service fees for shipments of frozen material and rederived live animals are €1740 and €3880, respectively.
The fees levied by EMMA are used solely to meet the animal husbandry and stock replacement costs, and to recuperate the cost for archiving. In addition to these recommended EMMA service fees users have to cover all the shipping costs (including the cost for returning dry-shippers, where applicable). For strains generated by use of the CRISPR technology, users also have to pay a license surcharge. In case of cancellations of service requests, EMMA reserves the right to charge users for incurred costs. The individual EMMA nodes will each bill users separately.

All EMMA requests are subject to the legally binding EMMA Conditions of use and all users need to accept them in the request process. In addition, if the producer of the material requires the signing of a material transfer agreement (MTA), this can be downloaded from the respective strain description page and will be provided to the recipient upon request.
Although EMMA mainly distributes to non-commercial recipients, if commercial users are interested in an EMMA strain, we will put them in contact with the strain producer and will only send the strains when an agreement is in place between the requestor and the producer.

When an MTA is needed for distribution of a strain, this can be downloaded from the respective strain details page and will be sent to the recipient in the request confirmation email.
In general, requests should be submitted before working on an MTA, where applicable. The request ID serves as tracking number for the distributing EMMA node during the process of MTA execution. A submitted request will not be processed until a fully executed MTA has been received (where applicable) and either a billing address or a purchase order number has been provided by the user. Therefore, please make sure to fill and sign the MTA and send it to the strain owner for countersignature (or to the EMMA node if countersignature not needed) once the request confirmation is received.

Please note that this MTA has been written by and for the EUCOMM consortium keeping in mind the purpose of the consortium: providing easy access to mouse models for biomedical research to improve the understanding of gene function in human health and disease using the mouse model.

Some MTAs are non-negotiable. For other MTAs requests to make changes to the MTA may be accepted. Please note that this process may be very time-consuming, as both producer and recipient legal teams will have to agree on the amendments before the MTA is signed off.

Recipients from EMMA strains may understand that governing law for the MTAs for distributing EMMA strains will be the national law from the strain producer or the distributing EMMA node. In special cases a completely neutral third country law could be applied. This ensures consistency and legal clarity for the providers, who assume responsibility for supplying the materials.

EMMA will ship two straws containing approximately 25 embryos / straw which will be sufficient to recover the stock.

The frozen material provided will be sufficient for two IVF sessions.

If live animals are ordered upon request, EMMA will ship up to 3 heterozygous animals, males or females (wildtype littermates could be also available upon request).

If you wish to obtain more animals, you should let us know per email after placing your request. Please do not send more than one request per strain for that purpose.

EMMA screens and distributes animals in accordance with  FELASA protocols. All animals leaving the EMMA institutions are free of the pathogens specified in the FELASA guidelines.

Yes, but the actual paperwork will vary according to your own national rules and regulations. You should seek advice from your named veterinary surgeon or animal house manager.

The EMMA node will make the material ready for shipping. The user has to cover all the shipping costs (including the cost for sending empty dry-shippers, where applicable) and will usually task a courier agent with picking up the material from the EMMA node and delivering it safely. All material is supplied Ex Works (EXW Incoterms 2020) from the EMMA node. Risk and title in the physical material shall pass to the user upon the EMMA node making the material available for collection by the user or its agent. As to risk of loss and damage we’d like to clearly explain that in case of shipping problems, even if the material is not delivered by the courier agent, the user still has to pay the recommended EMMA service fee.

EMMA strains are available to academic institutions all around the world. Stocks may also be available to industrial / commercial organisations, although their use may be restricted in accordance with specific Material Transfer Agreements held by the original owners / producers of the requested strain.

EMMA is primarily distributing strains to non-profit users.

For certain collections of strains and if the provider agrees, it may be possible to distribute to commercial users as well. Companies and other for-profit entities interested in obtaining EMMA strains please Pbagnpg hf ivn R-Znvy.

Any request received to use strains for a commercial activity will be referred to the strain owner(s). EMMA shall not be involved in any negotiations between the strain owner(s) and any recipient wishing to use strains obtained from EMMA for any commercial activity.

EMMA has newly submitted strains in various stages of preservation, development and colony establishment. These strains are not yet available for distribution or ordering and thus marked by a ‘Register interest’ button. However, you are invited to register your interest in any such strains by clicking on the  EMMA strain list, finding your strain of interest, then clicking the ‘Register interest’ button.

Registrations of interest will be handled on a first-come, first-served basis. This registration of interest is valuable in helping EMMA to anticipate demand and to optimise availability of strains. Users will be notified as soon as the strain becomes available. They will receive an e-mail with a link to a pre-filled online form that they can use to submit their order. For registrations of interest, the service fee that applies will be according to the recommended EMMA service fees displayed here at the time when the order is placed, i.e. submitting a registration of interest safeguards the place on the waiting list, but does not have any effect on the service fee that will be due.

EMMA strains produced from ES cells generated by the International Knockout Mouse Consortium (IKMC) are displayed on the EMMA strain list as soon as germ-line transmission has been achieved and the genotype of the pups has been confirmed. From this stage on scientists can register their interest for the mice on the EMMA strain list as described above.

Genes that have only been assigned for mouse production and phenotyping by the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC) and for which mice have not been produced, yet, it is possible to register interest on the  IMPC webpage.

ES cells and targeting vectors can be ordered directly from the  European Mouse Mutant Cell Repository (EuMMCR) holds and distributes vectors and mutant ES cell lines produced in the EUCOMM and EUCOMMTools consortia representing over 16.800 different genes.

No, IKMC vectors and ES cells must be orderd from the  IKMC repositories. The  European Mouse Mutant Cell Repository (EuMMCR) holds and distributes vectors and mutant ES cell lines produced in the EUCOMM and EUCOMMTools consortia representing over 16.800 different genes.

The EMMA strains can also be accessed from the following web sites:

International Mouse Strain Resource (IMSR)
International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC)
Mouse Genome Informatics (MGI)

So far EMMA has archived over 4800 mouse strains generated using the EUCOMM/KOMP targeting strategies. Some mouse strains are only archived as knockout-first allele (‘tm1a allele’), but if users are interested in another allele which is not cryopreserved at EMMA, some EMMA nodes offer  allele conversion as a service. Please note that this service may take longer than the delivery times for the already cryopreserved alleles and users have to pay an additional fee.

Delivery times and service fees are available upon request using the links in the availabilities section in the EMMA strain search. In case these options are note available in the EMMA strain search, please pbagnpg hf.

In the details pages for each EMMA strain you can find a ready-to-use sentence for citing the strain in your publications. Please use this or a similar sentence when citing a mutant strain obtained from EMMA.

To access the details page for the strain you used for your publication, please search for the EMMA strain here or in the search box in the upper right corner of this page. In the ‘Citation information’ section, you will see the text ‘copy citation’ in blue. If you click on it, the ready to use citation sentence will be copied to your clipboard and you can paste it in your manuscript text.

Please include in the publication the references below:

• INFRAFRONTIER Consortium. (2015). INFRAFRONTIER–providing mutant mouse resources as research tools for the international scientific community. Nucleic Acids Res. 43, D1171–D1175.
• Skarnes WC, Rosen B, West AP, Koutsourakis M, Bushell W, Iyer V, Mujica AO, Thomas M, Harrow J, Cox T, Jackson D, Severin J, Biggs P, Fu J, Nefedov M, de Jong PJ, Stewart AF, Bradley A. (2011). A conditional knockout resource for the genome-wide study of mouse gene function. Nature. 474, 337-342.

Additional information is available on Citing this Resource.

In the details pages for each EMMA strain you can find a ready-to-use sentence for citing the strain in your publications. Please use this or a similar sentence when citing a mutant strain obtained from EMMA.

To access the details page for the strain you used for your publication, please search for the EMMA strain here or in the search box in the upper right corner of this page. In the ‘Citation information’ section, you will see the text ‘copy citation’ in blue. If you click on it, the ready to use citation sentence will be copied to your clipboard and you can paste it in your manuscript text.

Additional information is available on Citing this Resource.

EMMA strongly promotes the shipment of frozen material in an attempt to minimise the welfare issues associated with the movement of live animals. The EMMA nodes always provide validated thawing protocols and further information about handling frozen sperm and embryos can be downloaded here. There are occasions, where EMMA would provide live animals, e.g.

• When recipients are not confident to do IVF and/or embryo transfer.
• No specialized facilities nearby.
• For strains that have proven to be hard to rederive.
• Recipient country’s rules don’t allow to import frozen material.

More about animal welfare in EMMA.