The mission of the Laboratory Animal Shared Resource (LASR) is to promote the humane care and use of laboratory animals in support of basic and translational research conducted at Roswell Park. The facilities and veterinary program are both accredited by AAALAC International demonstrating the commitment to humane and responsible animal research and dedication to good science. LASR is designed to offer the highest standards of animal care, with an expert technical staff performing all aspects of daily health observations, veterinary medical care, facility and equipment maintenance and surgical and technical services. The LASR offers CCSG members a full spectrum of laboratory animal care and use services including barrier facilities with fully automated environmental controls for the housing of research animal models. The LASR provides veterinary medical care, animal health surveillance, diagnostic laboratory facilities, irradiation services, research technical services and faculty training in support of more than 200 Institute Animal Care and Use Committee-approved animal use protocols and specialized animal husbandry with trained staff that performs all husbandry manipulations during cage changing inside Bio-Safety cabinets for maintenance of a pathogen- free environment of animals held in micro isolation (MI) caging systems. The main site is a four-story ~50,000 net square feet (nsf) vivarium, which opened in 1998, located in the Medical Research Complex building. An additional 9,000 nsf is available in the adjacent Cancer Cell Center building. The animal inventory fluctuates between 39,000 to 42,000 animals housed in the facility. In the reporting period (2013-2017), the LASR served a total of 129 Roswell users, of which 106 (82%) were CCSG members. LASR supports scientists that conduct in vivo studies. To further the success of the research programs within the cancer center, the LASR is actively involved in refinement of procedures that usually become new methods or innovations to accomplish the goals of proposed animal studies.
The Specific Aims of the LASR are: 1) To provide Roswell Park CCSG members access to state-of-the-art facilities, specialized husbandry and veterinary services for the housing and care of their laboratory animals used in research; 2) To propel the transition from basic and translational in vitro research into clinical application and practice using in vivo animal models of cancer; 3) To provide intellectual and technical support to assist basic and clinical investigators in all CCSG programs during experimental design, execution of projects and manuscript and/or grant writing. The goal of the LASR is to support biomedical research at the cancer center while maintaining the highest standards for the humane care and use of the laboratory animals. LASR will continue to maintain the AAALAC International accreditation for assurance of gold standards of animal care.
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