The Animal Shared Sen/ice at the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center (UMGCC) is a component of Veterinary Resources, which in turn, is part of the service arm of Comparative Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM). The Animal Shared Service represents more than one-third of Veterinary Resources'total animal operations. The mission of the shared service is to provide comprehensive lab animal services, care, and facilities to members of UMGCC . The goals of the Animal Shared Service are to provide high-quality, extensive services?including animal procurement, husbandry care, medical oversight, microbiological monitoring, pathology services, maintenance of genetically altered and immunodeficient rodent colonies, consultation and collaboration on animal model selection and development, and management of in vivo cancer center research projects. Comparative Medicine is an independent academic division that conducts collaborative and independent research. Established in 1989, it studies the characterization of animal models of human disease for biomedical research and the use of such models to advance understanding of disease or biological processes. Comparative Medicine contributes to UMSOM and UMGCC by providing collaborative research and professional development of veterinary physicians and staff, and is a resource for information and instruction on the use of lab animals in research. Veterinary Resources and the Institutional Care and Use Committee oversee and support all biomedical research projects that use live animals at UMSOM, including animal research carried out by members of UMGCC. The faculty, staff, and students at UMSOM and UMGCC understand that the quality of their research is critically dependant on the quality of lab animal care and use. Furthermore, appreciation of the educational and research missions by the university community at large is enhanced by the assurance that UMSOM and UMGCC sponsor ethical and humane lab animal care.
The Animal Shared Service offers valuable resources to support cancer research by investigators at UMGCC, including providing advice on animal model development;providing veterinary medical care to lab animals used in cancer research;and training investigators in special techniques, such as surgeries, anesthesia, drug delivery methods, and animal handling?all of which are necessary when conducting research on lab animals.
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