OVERVIEW The Experimental Animal Services Facility Core (EASFC) previously consisted of three intertwined units: the Experimental Animal Unit (Animal Care and Exposure), the Inhalation Exposure Unit, and the Histopathology Unit. The facility core has undergone some recent changes in personnel, including a change in Directorship. Dr. Kam-Meng Tchou-Wong has been Director of the Experimental Animal Services Facility Core since the former facility Core Director, Dr. Maarten Bosland, left NYU School of Medicine (NYUSOM) in 2006 for another academic position. In 2009, she also replaced Dr. Hugh Evans as Co-Director of the Experimental Animal Unit and is therefore responsible for the daily management of the Specialized Animal Care and Exposure Unit. In addition, she works with Dr. Jennifer Pullium, the new Attending Veterinarian, to assure adequate oversight, and to implement animal health sentinel programs and quality control of the facility to ensure compliance with AAALAC accreditation. Dr. Lung-Chi Chen remains Co-Director of the Inhalation Exposure Unit. Since the departure of Dr. Bosland, who was board certified in Laboratory Animal Pathology, the Histopathology Unit has become integrated as a formal satellite unit of the Experimental Pathology Facility Core supported by NYU Cancer Institute (NYUCI). The satellite unit, headed by Dr. Catherine Klein, continues to provide on-site histopathological services to Center members but is no longer directly supported by the NYU NIEHS Center. Based on the current and recently funded grants of Center members, there is increasing utilization of the Inhalation Exposure Unit for whole body exposures of rodents with environmental carcinogens, toxicants, nanoparticles and air pollutants. In order to meet these needs and provide the most cost-effective services to Center members, in order to support their research initiatives, we are reorganizing the Experimental Animal Services Core to focus our resources exclusively to support animal care, exposure and inhalation studies, and have eliminated Center support for the Histopathology Unit. In this competing renewal, the Experimental Animal Services Facility Core thus consists of the remaining two units, the Experimental Animal Unit and the Inhalation Exposure Unit. This permits the Core to consolidate manpower effort to focus on providing support for specialized animal care for animal exposure studies dedicated to environmental health and diseases and various routes of exposures (inhalation and non-inhalation) of environmental toxicants and carcinogens. Dr. Tchou-Wong also assumes the supervisory duties and responsibilities of Ms. Katherine Seymour, former Supervisor of the Experimental Animal Unit. Other personnel changes include the replacement of the inhalation technician Mr. Martin Blaustein by Mr. Mianhua Zhong, Associate Scientist in charge of the Inhalation Exposure Unit, and the creation of a new Inhalation Exposure Unit technician position, filled by Mr. Eric Larios, to provide essential inhalation exposure-related animal services.
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