Home - Knock Out Rat Consortium

KORC

The Knock Out Rat Consortium (KORC) is formed by individuals and institutions interested in the goal of creating knockout rats using multiple different technologies. Knockout rats can be used for functional genomics and also for drug discovery. The animal models created by KORC are available to the academic community for research purposes through the Rat Resource and Research Center.

Mission Statement

The mission of the KORC is to create rats with single gene disruptions (knockouts) using all available technology.
Our goal is create at least one rat with a null mutation corresponding to every gene in the rat genome.
We will create all mutations on the same background strain of rat, namely Fischer.
Each knockout will be bred into at least one male rat, which will be sacrificed for tissue collection and cryopreservation of sperm.
Sperm from each knockout male rat will be cryopreserved and stored at the Rat Resource and Research Center (RRRC) at the University of Missouri (Columbia, MO).
Cryopreserved sperm can be used to create knockout rats with specific null mutations by the process called intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).
Tissues from each rat will be isolated and stored at the RRRC.
Tissues and cryopreserved sperm will be made available to the academic community for research purposes through the RRRC.