Requesting Materials

PlasmoGEM materials are freely available to researchers. Reagents continue to be distributed from the Sanger Institute. There is no charge for requesting vectors but recipients are asked to pay for shipping.

A Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) is needed solely to protect the rights of Lucigen, the provider of the pJAZZ vector backbone which is part of all PlasmoGEM constructs, and which users may not exploit commercially. Lucigen has been acquired by LGC Biosearch Technologies, and to our knowledge the all pJazz based cloning kits and associated cell lines have unfortunately been discontinued.

Only one MTA per principal investigator is needed and remains valid for future requests from the same research group as long as it remains at the host institute the MTA was set up with.

MTA and request forms can be downloaded from here.

Setting up an MTA

If you do not have an MTA with us yet or if your MTA was set up before November 2016:

1. Email plasmogem@sanger.ac.uk to obtain a PlasmoGEM MTA reference number
2. Download the MTA (PDF) form here
3. Fill in MTA:
1. Tick the acknowledgement box on the cover page (page 1).
2. Fill in your MTA reference number from step 1 on page 2
3. Fill in names and addresses.
   The Recipient is the host institute.
   The Principal Investigator is the principal investigator (lab head) of the research group requesting the material.
   The Authorised Signatory must be authorised to sign legally binding agreements on behalf of your institute. This is typically a representative from legal or corporate office / services and not the Principal Investigator.
4. Acquire a physical signature on the MTA by your authorised signatory.
4. Scan the completed MTA form and send back to plasmogem@sanger.ac.uk. Please do so by replying to our email from step 1. This helps us to keep track of requests.
5. Once the MTA has been approved by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute's legal team, we will send you a PDF file of the scanned fully executed document.

Requesting materials

1. If you have not set up an MTA with us or your MTA was set up before November 2016, follow the Setting up an MTA procedure above. You can submit your request form at the same time.
   If your lab has an MTA set up since November 2016 at your current host institute then your request is covered by that MTA. You will need the existing MTA reference number in the next step.
2. Email plasmogem@sanger.ac.uk to obtain a PlasmoGEM request reference number
3. Download the vector or genomic clone request form from here.
4. Fill in the request reference number (PG-REQ-XXXX) from step 1 and the reference number of the MTA (PG-MTA-XXXX) that covers the request.
5. Fill in names and email addresses.
We will copy the authorised signatory into our email communication, so it is important that this email address is correct.
6. Fill in delivery address and courier details, including your account number with your chosen courier. Please use FedEx, if possible as this is the courier we usually ship with.
   If there is a special procedure we need to follow for the delivery to your country, please make sure to provide details for this in the comments section.
7. Fill in the PlasmoGEM identification numbers of the constructs, library clones or artificial chromosomes, as shown on the PlasmoGEM website.
   Please only request materials that are marked as being available on the website.
8. Send the Excel document back to plasmogem@sanger.ac.uk.
   Please do so by replying to the email in step 1. This helps us to keep track of requests.
   Note, that there is no signature required on this document.
9. We will contact you once we are ready to ship the delivery. We ship constructs as agar stabs at room temperature.
   When the delivery has arrived, we will send additional details about the constructs.