■ On January 14, 2016, Takara Bio USA, Inc., (formerly Clontech Laboratories, Inc., (TBUSA)) and RIKEN BioResource Center (On April 1, 2018, the name of the Center was changed to RIKEN BioResource Research Center: RIKEN BRC) concluded an agreement on the Limited Distribution License for two Fluorescent Proteins (hereafter abbreviated as FPs), DsRed2 and mCherry. Additionally TBUSA and RIKEN BRC signed an amendment to the license agreement to include the following 17 FPs, in addition to DsRed2 and mCherry: AmCyan, AsRed, DsRed Express, HcRed, ZsGreen, ZsYellow, E2-Crimson, mStrawberry, mOrange, mBanana, mPlum, mRaspberry, tdTomato, DsRed Monomer, AcGFP, mRFP1, and mApple.

Under this amended agreement, RIKEN BRC is now able to receive, maintain, test the quality and preserve the genetically-engineered mice, stable cell-lines or plasmids which you developed with any of the 19 FPs owned or licensed by TBUSA described above and also to distribute them for not-for-profit academic research. We ask for your active use of these bioresources. There will be no change for deposition, but we ask you to bear a part of license fees when we distribute the bioresources with the FPs. We ask for your understanding and cooperation.

■ If you have developed your own bioresources with the FPs, we ask to deposit them to RIKEN BRC. Such deposits will be a significant contribution to the promotion of scientific research. In addition, deposition will free you from time-consuming preparation and distribution of bioresources for fellow researchers. We will make our best efforts to carefully preserve and maintain the deposited bioresources so that we may meet the needs of researchers around the world.

If you have any questions regarding the use of bioresources with FPs, please contact F. Omae at BioResource Research Center Promotion Office (fomae@riken.jp)

For questions regarding specific resources, please contact the appropriate division:

FPs bioresource list