In this Phase I proposal, Vulintus, Inc. proposes to develop and test ?OmniHome?, a wireless, self-contained home cage system for assessing fine motor function in rodents. Current methods for longitudinally assessing skilled motor function in aging rodent models are labor intensive. time-consuming to administer frequently over long timescales, and stressful to the animal. The proliferation of new rodent genetic models for motor diseases in which age is a primary risk factor, such as Parkinson?s disease, Huntington?s disease, and adult onset muscular dystrophies, adds new urgency to the need to develop more efficient methods for phenotyping motor function. OmniHome will reduce experimenter supervision and daily test administration requirements to a minimum, allowing researchers to more efficiently track fine forelimb function in rodent models while minimizing animal stress and confounding variability from experimenter handling.
Current methods for longitudinally assessing skilled motor function in aging rodent models are labor intensive and time-consuming to administer frequently over long timescales. The proliferation of new rodent genetic models for motor diseases in which age is a primary risk factor adds new urgency to the need to develop more efficient methods for phenotyping motor function. For this Phase I SBIR project, Vulintus, Inc. proposes to develop and validate ?OmniHome?, a self-contained home-cage rodent forelimb assessment system capable of unsupervised administration of operant skilled motor tasks.
