Core Center Resources:
Animal Facilities
Animal Care and Use Program and Facilities – Judith Daviau, D.V.M., TJU
TJU has a centralized animal care and use program, which supports its research and education mission. The animal research facilities and program are accredited by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International (AAALAC-I), have a current assurance #A3085-01 in compliance with the Public Health Service Policy and are registered as a research facility #23-R-0011 with the U.S. Department of Agriculture under provisions of the Animal Welfare Act. The animal research facilities are located on the TJU campus in three buildings for a total of 39,491 sft of animal research support and housing space. The facilities house a wide variety of laboratory animal species and have support areas for specialized functions including a transgenic rodent barrier facility, microinjection laboratory, Biosafety level 3 suites, experimental surgery facilities and other diagnostic and support space.
Animal facilities are located in the center of Jefferson Alumni Hall on floors two through six. These are multipurpose facilities that house a variety of animal species. The third floor contains a Biosafety Level 3 suite and also a non-human primate facility. A portion of the fourth floor contains experimental surgery suites and support areas. The fifth floor is a rodent barrier facility. Two elevators interconnect the floors and key card security access is required. There is also a modern zebra fish aquaria laboratory on the fifth floor outside the main animal facility. The facilities are a centralized university resource and managed by the Office of Animal Resources. The Director, Judith Daviau, D.V.M. is a Diplomate of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine (ACLAM). A clinical veterinarian, business manager, facility manager, four supervisors, four veterinary technicians and thirty-three animal caretakers assist her. The Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) is actively involved in the program.
Laboratory Animals – Arthur Buchberg, Ph.D., KCC, TJU
The primary purpose of the Laboratory Animal Shared Resource is to provide the resources and environment with which animals models of cancer can be created and analyzed for the Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center.
This shared resource provides housing and high quality maintenance and care for laboratory animals. The facility also provides technical expertise in small animal surgery, administration of chemical and radiological reagents.
A critical component of the facility is the maintenance of a high quality barrier facility to generate a specific pathogen free environment that ensures the accurate interpretation of experimental results. The in-colony health surveillance program ensures that fidelity of the facility.
The Animal Shared Resource has maintained full AAALAC accreditation since 1977. The facility is operated as a partial barrier system in which all animals are housed in sterile microisolator cages. The facility is composed of 29 animal rooms, along with the requisite cage and food storage area, a dedicated necropsy room, and a tunnel cage washer. The shared resource has consistently maintained the highest level of expertise and proficiency greatly enhancing the work of the cancer center members
Equipment
The shared resource has a total capacity of ~10,607 rodent cages, a recent census (April 2007) revealed that current rodent cage usage was 8300 cages. The data indicates that we are operating at ~80% capacity. Clearly, there is a strong need to increase capacity to enable full utilization of resources. The short-term strategy to increase capacity is by the increased use of ventilated rack systems. Currently there are 35 ventilated rack systems (140 cages/rack). A complete conversion of the BLSB barrier facility to ventilated racks will increase the cage capacity to ~10,000 cages (3,650,000 cage card days) a capacity increase of 35% for the total facility. The long-term plans are to renovate space in Jefferson Alumni Hall to accommodate the partial barrier system with the use of University Funds.
- Rooms 1110, 1112 and 1113 of the Bluemle Life Science Building are designated for use of BL2/3 agents. There is one animal room, which houses animals in this area (room 1113). The total square footage of this room is 352. Room 1112 is a support area (procedure room), which is 146 square feet and house a 100% exhausted vertical laminar flow biological safety cabinet. (Class II, Type B2). Room 1113 includes seven HEPA filtered isolation cubicles with filtered intake and exhaust. Cubicle differential pressure is controllable (+ or -) as are light settings. The suite has a dedicated Sterilizer/MDT Castle, Model # 3633) for autoclaving of all items which enter/leave. The entire suite is HEPA filtered.
- A Biosafety Level (BSL) 2/3 animal facility of 4,607 gross square feet is located on the third floor of Jefferson Alumni Hall. The facilities operate on their own 100% non-recirculating air handling systems with HEPA filtered exhaust and backup arms. It is a single corridor facility with double door entry way and exit via locker rooms. There are six animal holding rooms, four of which contain HEPA filtered isolation cubicles and there are biosafety hoods in each room. Room 352M is a decontamination room containing a large industrial Getinge autoclave. The facility is designed in accordance with CDC/NIH guidelines as listed in Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories.
- Animals exposed to radioactive material and other hazardous agents are housed in designated animal rooms or cubicles. For hazardous procedures that pose a safety concern, animals are taken to the investigators laboratory where appropriate equipment is used such as exhaust hoods. Appropriate equipment is used during exposure if there is a safety violation.
Transgenic Knock-out Mice – Carlisle Landel, Ph.D., KCC, TJU
The ability to produce animal models of disease with specifically engineered genetic alterations is an extremely powerful tool in cancer research. The availability of these transgenic technologies is a cornerstone of modern biological research. The KCC Transgenic Facility was established in 1992 to provide services in the production of transgenic mice by pronuclear microinjection. Over time, this service was expanded to include the production of chimeric animals via the injection of embryonic stem (ES) cells carrying targeted mutations into host blastocysts.
In 1999, full-service gene targeting services were added, with the capability to maintain, mutagenize and select targeted mutations in ES cells and produce mice carrying these targeted mutations.
In 2004, the services of the Facility were expanded yet again to encompass cryopreservation services, allowing the preservation of mouse models for both security and to preserve valuable animal space, and furthermore allowing easy dissemination and acquisition of mouse models via frozen germplasm. Concomitant with this was the implementation of assisted reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization that can be applied to improving strain management.
In 2006, the Facility expanded its ES cell service, adding the ability to produce tetraploid embryos by electrofusion of two-cell embryos, which can in certain circumstances be used to produce chimeras that are 100% ES-cell derived.
Equipment
The Facility has an office and a laboratory for molecular biology benchwork, basic prep work and ES cell culture on the 6th floor of the BLSB. Within the animal facility on the 11th floor of the building are the microinjection suite and cryopreservation suite, as well as attached animal holding space.
- The microinjection suite contains all the necessary items for embryo manipulation and mouse surgery. It is equipped with two Leica inverted microscopes with DIC optics and Leitz micromanipulators, a Sutter P-27 pipette puller, a De Fonbrune microforge, a Sutter BV-10 micropipettte beveller, dissecting microscopes for embryo manipulation and embryo transfer surgery, and incubators for embryo culture.
- The cryopreservation suite is the site of germplasm collection, cryopreservation and recovery, and additionally functions as the location for performing assisted reproductive techniques and producing and culturing chimeric embryos produced by aggregation. It contains 2 CBS liquid nitrogen storage tanks with a capacity of 15,000 samples, each and fitted with an automatic filling system to maintain liquid nitrogen levels, dissecting microscopes for germplasm recovery and manipulation and for embryo transfer surgery, an FTS Biocool IV controlled rate freezer, a KMINC-1000 benchtop IVF incubator, and a tissue culture incubator for embryo culture. It also contains a BLS CF-150 cell fusion apparatus for producing tetraploid embryos used in making fusion chimeras.
- The ES cell culture facility is equipped with a Class II tissue culture hood, a Nikon TMS inverted microscope, Nikon Eclipse E400 microscope for examining chromosome spreads, a BioRad Gene Pulse II electroporation device, tissue culture incubators, centrifuges, waterbaths, and a small liquid nitrogen storage freezer for ES cells.
Office of Laboratory Medicine – Frank Warren, UD
The UD Office of Laboratory Animal Medicine (OLAM) presently maintains an approximately 11,000 square foot animal housing and research facility. OLAM has a staff of eight full time employees including two administrative staff members, four animal health technicians, a certified and licensed laboratory animal health technician, and a licensed attending veterinarian. The animal facility includes a modern surgical suite, two rodent surgical rooms, a cryo-storage room, a full-function procedure laboratory, an x-ray facility, and a diagnostic laboratory. The facility provides housing for mice, rats, rabbits in all of the 20 available animal housing rooms. Additionally, the UD animal-housing facilities include a room for the housing of immune-compromised animals, an off-site quarantine room for non-approved vendor animals, and ventilated mouse-housing racks. Facilities accommodate the aseptic or conventional housing for mice as well as isolation capacity for work with pathogens. The McKinly Laboratory houses the main UD laboratory animal facility and OLAM. Additional satellite facilities for psychobiological research are located in Wolf Hall. The UD animal care program is PHS approved (#50-R-0006) and USDA registered (#A3773-01).
Life Science Center – Paul Fawcett, Ph.D., Nemours
The Life Science Center (LSC) is a core facility designed for conducting biomedical research using animal models of human disease. In spring of 2008 a roughly $360,000 renovation to the Life Science Center (funded by the COBRE grant) was completed that will facilitate translational research programs by investigators at Nemours. The AAALAC accredited facility is led by Paul T. Fawcett, Ph.D. with support from Gwen Talham, DVM, Attending Veterinarian, Patty Wheatley, RLAT, Manage, Anne Hesek, RLAT, Surgical Services Specialist. This facility includes 10 holding rooms, 3 surgical suites and 4 procedure rooms.