Charles River Laboratories has expanded its CRISPR/Cas9 service offering with the addition of a license from ERS Genomics Limited. The license, coupled with the existing license through the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, allows Charles River to offer custom in vivo and in vitro genome editing.

“The addition of a license from ERS provides our clients with a robust CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing platform,” said Dr. Iva Morse, corporate vice president, chief scientific officer, Global Research Models and Services. “Our offering allows clients to work with one company to develop in vitro models and cell lines and later place them into in vivo studies. This end-to-end service increases the efficiency and effectiveness of our clients’ research process.”

Charles River uses CRISPR for target screening alone or alongside RNAi screening with its shRNA library (SilenceSelect) to create custom knock-in and knockout cell lines for drug discovery applications.

Charles River also has existing partnerships for in vivomodel creation, including: Mirimus, for RNA interference technology specializing in the creation of customized genetically engineered mouse models; Laboratory Animal Resource Center, University of Tsukuba, a production institute for genetically modified mice; Phenomin ICS, a provider of mouse and rat creation and phenotyping.