ANIMAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT In addition to the surgery core, the NHLBI animal program provides veterinary care, research technical support and animal husbandry to rodents in NHLBI operated facilities and oversight of NHLBI animal activities in other NIH facilities. This includes logistical and financial management as well as regulatory compliance for all NHLBI animal activities. Dr. Hawkins and Ms. Joni Taylor also serve as members of the NHLBI Animal Care and Use Committee which is responsible for the research use and regulatory compliance of the animal research activities. Dr. Hawkins and the program managers also assist investigators in the planning of research projects, preparation of animal protocols and implementation of the work. Animal Program staff were co-authors on three publications in FY 18. SURGERY CORE SCIENTIFIC IMPACT Training within DIR ASR provides a formal 4 hour training class for all research staff who do animal surgery in NHLBI. We provide investigators with surgical training both within formal classes and in one-on-one settings. Over the past 12 months, we have formally trained 20 investigators and technical staff in basic surgical skills and aseptic technique in our investigator training course. Outside DIR Teaching & Mentoring For the last 18 years, Dr. Robert Hoyt (formerly NHLBI and now in NCI) has led and the ASR staff has served as instructors for multiple microsurgical workshop wet-labs (basic and advanced) at the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS). The travel for this is sponsored and paid for by AALAS. This is one of their most popular and highly rated workshops. Instructors from ASR in 2017 were Jeffries, Keeran, and Zetts. In 2017 & 2018, Dr. Hoyt, Randy Clevenger, Joni Taylor and the ASR staff conducted day-long microsurgery workshops for staff at NIH. One covered basic microsurgical techniques (32 students) and one advanced class of 8 students. We plan to continue this offering and see it as a valuable training opportunity for NIH. ASR staff taught a workshop at the area NCAB-AALAS an on-campus suturing workshop sponsored by NCAB in 2018. ASR staff also had a very popular session for the 2018 Take Your Child to Work Day.
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