From owner-dros@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk Sun Mar 3 18:11:51 2002 Return-Path: Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3194D17A87 for ; Sun, 3 Mar 2002 18:11:50 +0000 (GMT) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 73BDF17AB9 for ; Sun, 3 Mar 2002 18:11:46 +0000 (GMT) Received: by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix, from userid 6020) id AF14E17A87; Sun, 3 Mar 2002 18:11:44 +0000 (GMT) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7B9D317B30 for ; Fri, 1 Mar 2002 20:08:27 +0000 (GMT) Received: by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix, from userid 60001) id D5EC017ACE; Fri, 1 Mar 2002 20:08:13 +0000 (GMT) To: bionet-drosophila@net.bio.net From: fraser.1@nd.edu (Malcolm Fraser) Newsgroups: bionet.drosophila Subject: piggyBac availability Organization: BIOSCI/MRC Human Genome Mapping Project Resource Centre Message-ID: <3C7FE0A4.F81A897C@nd.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854"; x-mac-creator="4D4F5353" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id F153F17B2A for ; Fri, 1 Mar 2002 20:08:05 +0000 (GMT) X-Received: from dagger.nd.edu (dagger.nd.edu [129.74.250.101]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3567D17ACE for ; Fri, 1 Mar 2002 20:07:56 +0000 (GMT) X-Received: from nd.edu (fraser610.bio.nd.edu [129.74.133.18]) by dagger.nd.edu (8.10.2/8.10.2) with ESMTP id g21K7rk29043 for ; Fri, 1 Mar 2002 15:07:54 -0500 (EST) X-Reply-To: fraser.1@nd.edu X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.76 (Macintosh; U; PPC) X-Accept-Language: en X-To: dros@net.bio.net Date: Sun, 3 Mar 2002 18:11:44 +0000 (GMT) Sender: owner-dros@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Dear Colleagues, I'd just like to clear the air on the availability of piggyBac and the licensing issue that seems to have negatively impinged on it's general use as a tool for Drosophila transgenesis. piggyBac is a highly useful transposable element for transgenic applications in Drosophila melanogaster. The element has been patented jointly by The University of Notre Dame, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the University of Florida. The University of Notre Dame manages the licensing of piggyBac for commercial interests. All licenses are non-exclusive due to the part ownership by a government agency. piggyBac is freely available to academic researchers, and may be readily obtained from our lab with the signing of a standard Material Data Transfer agreement. Constructs available in the lab for dissemination include the p3E1.2 full length piggyBac clone, a pCaSpeR-hs-pBac-orf helper, and any other constructs that we have or will continue to generate. For those interested in obtaining the element, my e-mail address is fraser.1@nd.edu. Additional sources for useful piggyBac constructs include Ernst Wimmer and Al Handler, and you should contact them for their derivatives. As for strains or constructs generated by any commercial licensee, my understanding is that those are controlled by the licensee. The University of Notre Dame simply stipulates that if such strains or constructs are released for general use, a statement indicating that commercial use of the strains or vectors does require a license agreement with The University of Notre Dame. Such notifications are quite common, and can easily be found among numerous vectors that are available commercially. In short, The University of Notre Dame does not advocate the restriction of piggyBac for non-commercial uses. I have taken great pains to insure that our Technology Transfer Office is not restrictive in the development of piggyBac as a generalized vector for transgenesis, and I must say they have been extremely compliant in this respect. If anyone has encountered difficulties arising from our Technology Transfer Office, I would like to hear of them so that I can clear them up immediately. I hope that this removes any inhibitions that the Drosophila community has in utilizing this tool, and that research with piggyBac will be fruitful and unfettered. Sincerely, Mac Fraser --- .