The Animal Core Facility will serve as an integral component of the UNC PPG. It is composed of rodent models for Pulmonary and Hematologic disorders and will be utilized by all projects. This core will provide in vivo models to the investigator for establishing preclinical studies necessary before initiating clinical trials. Some of the services the animal core will provide are related to deriving new animal models for airway and hemophilia gene therapy (Projects 3 and 4) through transgenic and knock out/knock in technology. These techniques are an established service to be offered to investigators who lack the facilities or expertise to create these invaluable resources. Breeding, maintaining, and distribution of animals is a major objective of the core facility and will be used by Projects 1, 2, 3, and 4. Apart from the routine breeding and maintaining of animals, the availability of the highly trained personnel of the Animal Core provides additional benefits to this research program. The UNC Animal Models Core Facility provides top-quality services at a manageable cost. Highly trained staff is directly engaged with researchers, and collaborations and resource sharing are facilitated. Perhaps most importantly, the facility provides assistance and guidance at many levels (i.e. creating genetically modified mice, from building, a DNA construct to phenotypic characterization of the animals). Thus, we can prevent a conceptually simple but technically demanding aspect of these proposals from becoming a serious obstacle to their success. The mouse facility has excellent records of success in creating, maintaining, and breeding animal models and these resources will be an added value to the overall goal of the UNC PPG.
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