Cerberus News
$35 Flat Rate Sample Transport To Adelaide
Save money on sample transport !
We have been able to negotiate very competitive rates for sample transport to our Adelaide laboratory through Toll Priority.
These rates mean that we can transport standard IATA boxes with a weight of less than 5kg (serum and tissue samples) from ANYWHERE in Australia to Adelaide by overnight airfreight for the one low rate of $35 (GST inclusive).
To take advantage of these rates all you have to do is:
- Let us know that you are interested – we will provide you with pre-printed consignment notes. Once you have received your consignment notes-
- Pack your samples as per normal (frozen samples on cool packs or similar) and phone the Toll Priority number 13 15 31 before 12 noon on the day of pick up – Toll Priority will collect the package before 5pm and the samples will be delivered to us the next morning.
The transport fee of $35 will be added to your invoice for that submission.
Please Note:
If you intend to regularly send samples packed on dry ice, you must forward details of your Dangerous Goods Accredited contact to arthur_ziolek@toll.com.au PRIOR to using the service for the first time. Your facility will then be added to their register for future shipments – you only have to supply these details to Toll Priority once.
Dry ice shipments of less than 5kg are at the same low price of $35.
If you have any questions with regard to this service feel free to contact us at any time on ph: 08 8234 8780 fax: 08 8234 8712 e-mail: Cerberus@cerberus.net.au or contact Arthur Ziolek at Toll Priority (arthur_ziolek@toll.com.au).
Client Login Now Available
As part of our continuing dedication to Client Service, secure client Log-In facilities are now available.
You can keep track of all your submissions to Cerberus, download completed reports in pdf format and search through historical data by Date, Species, Strain, Location and Test or any combination of these.
If you wish to make use of this facility, please contact Cerberus Sciences for a User ID and password.
Pneumocystis carinii infection in rats
Researchers have noticed inflammatory lesions in the lungs of rats used in reseach since the 1990's. The lesions consist of perivascular lymphocytes, inflammatory cells in the lung alveoli and the presence of thickened alveolar walls. The lung lesions can mask or confuse research findings and have been extremely perplexing to researchers since the cause was not known. Initially a virus was suggested as the cause (rat respiratory virus - RRV), but recently researchers have demonstrated a correlation between the presence of lung lesions and Pneumocystis carinii DNA detected by PCR (Livingston et al.,2011). Pneumocystis carinii is a single celled, fungal, respiratory pathogen which causes severe pneumonia in immunosuppressed animals and humans.
If you suspect that Pneumocystis carinii may be causing lung lesions in your laboratory rats, consider sending us a lung sample (frozen or in "RNA later") and lung sample in 10% formalin.
We will be able to perform PCR on the lung tissue to check for the presence of Pneumocystis carinii DNA and we can also examine the fixed lung tissue using histopathology to detect the characteristic lung lesions.
Alternatively we can also take delivery of a live rat and perform a necropsy and harvest the required tissues.
Contact Cerberus Sciences if you are interested in this service.
ReferenceL Livingston RS, Besch-Williford CL, Myles MH, Franklin CL, Crim MJ, Riley LK 2011 Pneumocystis carinii infection causes lung lesions historically attributed to rat respiratory virus. Comparative Medicine 61: 45-52
Transgene Copy Number Service
Copy number determination/variationby Quantitative PCR.
It is important for researchers and staff maintaining colonies of transgenic mice to check the copy number of the gene of interest in all breeders and progeny to ensure that copy numbers are being maintained from generation to generation.
The principle behind the qPCR technique is that the gene of interest and an internal control gene can be amplified by PCR simultaneously, and PCR product can be monitored after each cycle of amplificatin, based onreporter fluorescence specific for either the gene of interest or the internal control.
The earliest cycle (CT, cycle threshold) at which an increase of reporter fluorescence above a baseline signal is recorded for the gene of interest and internal control, and the difference, called deltaCT, is calculated. The higher the copy number, the less cycles needed to amplify sufficient product to reach detectable levels. This is a useful for monitoring a change of transgene copy numbers ( Ref: Liu D, Schmidt C, Billings T, Davisson M. 2003).
Sample Requirements: Founder DNA and low copy number DNA (for copy number determination) should be provided for our test. You can provide your primer and probe sequence or DNA sequence of transgene for a custom designed assay.
Copyright © 2010 Cerberus Sciences.