Another fantastic year is done and I’d like to share it with you by summarising it in numbers.

24 -week timeline

The fastest timeline for a project was 24 weeks, which was achieved in December 2015. This was a conditional knockout mouse line on a C57BL/6 background using homologous recombination. As our efficiency increases, I have no doubt that 2016 will be a record breaker for this number.

33% timeline improvement

In December 2014, our fastest timeline was 36 weeks. We have improved by 12 weeks (3 months) or 33% in one year! This massive improvement is due to Lean and the Ozgene Mind Quest (OMQ), goGermline and most importantly, the Ozgene team.

0 non-ES cell mice generated

Our patented goGermline technology has made this possible. It’s a significant improvement over classical technology and the amount of non-ES cell derived mice generated in 2014. Using goGermline, these excess mice are never generated. This is great for the Vivarium staff and the 3 R’s (replace, reduce, refine) of animal welfare.

4 goGermline licenses granted

goGermline technology was patented (WO 2015/066768 A1) in May 2015 and is titled “Compositions and methods for producing genetically modified animals”. This technology allows only ES-cell derived mice to be generated, significantly improving project efficiency, timelines and animal welfare. Four licenses have so far been granted for goGermline to Max Planck Research Unit for Neurogenetics, Sanger Institute, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, and MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology.

30% growth in project numbers

Compared to 2014, we were able to grow and take on 30% more projects this year. How? You guessed it; improved timelines and goGermline technology. We can also accommodate many more in 2016!

2 new services launched

In addition to improving our existing services, we also launched two new services in 2015. We now provide validation phenotyping services and exploratory phenotyping services. These services are custom designed so let’s have a chat about what you need.

33 scientific publications

There were 33 new publications featuring Ozgene mice in 2015. This means an Ozgene generated mouse was published every 11 days. In total, there have been 301 publications by Ozgene staff or our clients acknowledging Ozgene for mouse generation over the years.

110 years of Ozgene experience

110 years of Ozgene experience; that’s the combined years at Ozgene for the 8 ‘Ozgene fossils’, each with over 10 years at Ozgene. They range in age from 34-51 and include the CEO, CSO, and Ozgene team members in marketing, sales, vector construction, tissue culture, animal and project management.

2015 has been a great numbers year for Ozgene; demonstrating again that Lean works in a scientific environment. I hope that you have enjoyed the posts from the past year and have even learned something valuable along the way. 2016 has its work cut-out for it following all the successes of 2015, but I am certain we can blow these numbers out of the water!

Wishing you all the very best for 2016

– Frank, CEO –