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Research: Shared Services

Animal Shared Service: Services Provided

 
 

UMGCC members receive a wide range of veterinary medical support services. Most services (I. Basic Services) are provided without technical service fees and are covered by per diem charges, Special Services (II.) offered as “fee for service” are identified as such. Additional Special Services (III.) are proposed to be provided only to Cancer Center members as part of the P30 grant.

  1. Basic Services (covered by per diems):
    • Complete husbandry, microisolator housing and veterinary medical care and oversight for all research animals
    • Consultation and animal model selection advice from VR faculty experts in the use of animal models for cancer research
    • Provision of MAP testing to screen for adventitious pathogens in transplanted tumors and/or cancer cell lines, as well as other rodent biology (not supported by per diems, institutional subsidy)
    • Advice and oversight of the breeding/production of special rodent strains (e.g. NOD-SCID, nude mice, and certain transgenics), training in the use of irradiation services, training in the use of specialized housing including intra-cage ventilated caging and Hydropac water delivery systems
    • Extensive quarantine health assessments for a wide range of viruses, bacteria and parasites in laboratory mice that are used in cancer research
    • Broad ranging sentinel surveillance and direct colony screening allows us to maintain animals that are free of adventitious pathogens that may confound experimental protocols
    • Specialized training and courses on the handling and experimental use (e.g. anesthesia and surgery) of rodents and other species provided by our attending veterinarians
  2. Special Services (fee-for service);
    • Special access and training for the use of the In Vivo Imaging System (IVIS) Imaging System (Xenogen luciferase based) and other systems such as PET and CT, to allow in vivo imaging of mice.
    • Laboratory Animal Pathology – our veterinary pathologists in addition to a number of Assistant Professors of Pathology (who are labeled as attending veterinarians on the organizational chart) are available to Cancer Center faculty and provide support for both gross and microscopic pathology
  3. Additional Special Services to be provided with the support from the current P30 grant application: these additional services are to be uniquely provided to Cancer Center members utilizing the UMGCC Animal Shared Service. We have currently received requests for this technical support from more than half of our cancer center investigators. The special types of additional support requested:
    • Rodent ovariectomy and orchidectomy, prior to xenografting in SCID mice (these are mice from our own colony)
    • Renal capsule implantation of tumor fragments/cells
    • Production of polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies (immunization and cell fusion) to tumor specific antigens
    • Maintenance of unique transgenic mouse colonies
    • Irradiation of SCID or nude mice prior to xeno transplantation
    • Transplantation or transfer of special cell types or tumor cells to mice
    • Basic mouse clinical chemistries
    • Further development of in-house breeding colonies of frequently used immune-deficient or transgenic mouse strains
    • Gamma irradiation of mice and other animals
    • Pathology support will be provided by Dr’s DeTolla, Lipsky and McLeod on-request by UMGCC members. For an initial evaluation, advice and consultation on how the investigator should proceed in terms of tissue/tumor sample selection, special stains, etc.

The first two hours of microscopic histopathology review (including two H&E slides) would be without charge with further more extensive evaluation on a fee-for-service basis annually or per research project.


This page was last updated on: August 19, 2010.