CORE B: ANIMAL CARE CORE ABSTRACT (CORE B) The Animal Care Core (Core B) provides project support for animal care and housing, importation, in vivo procedural sampling, and animal model creation for the MMPC-UCD. The Core accomplishes this through importation and acclimation of mice with minimal delay and reduced quarantine. The Core has access to and oversight of a dedicated in vivo Phenotyping Facility and associated state-of-the-art vivaria, including a high- containment ?approved vendor-status? barrier vivarium. In addition, the Core has primary access to a new, UCD Gnotobiotic Mouse Research Center (GMRC). The Core provides numerous scientific support services as well, including rederivation and creation of genetically-modified mutant mice, re-animation of a variety of models cryopreserved within the KOMP or MMRRC repositories. These new and extant mouse models can then be bred to produce male and female cohorts for in vivo and in vitro phenotyping, including rederivation into the GMRC for gut microbiome studies. The Core also operates a Microsurgery Suite for creating surgically-manipulated mouse models, such as bariatric surgical models. The Core can produce for researchers cohorts of mice that have undergone Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy (VSG) and Roux en Y Gastric Bypass (RYGB) bariatric procedures. Upon request from users, the Core can work with the other Phenotyping Cores to provide testing, manipulation, and sampling of these models. In addition, the Core can ship these surgically-manipulated models as well as any genetically-engineered mouse lines to requesting investigators from our approved vendor barrier vivarium, facilitating direct entry into the recipient institution's vivarium. This ensures minimal delay for investigators for receipt and use of these animal models at their institution. The Core also provides ancillary services and procedures, including blood sampling for in vivo testing for glucose tolerance tests and insulin tolerance tests, which are then sent to the Phenotyping Cores (e.g., Core C, Endocrinology and Metabolism Core) for analysis. The Core can also provide telemetry implantation and indwelling catheter placement for continuous blood sampling. The Core is supported by two trained laboratory animal veterinarians, three trained rodent surgical technicians, one import/export coordinator, and two phenotyping technicians. In these ways, the Animal Care Core is uniquely qualified to support the varied in vivo needs of MMPC-UCD users to meet their specific needs, from rapid importation and testing, genetically- engineered and genome-edited (Cas9) mouse lines, bariatric and other surgically-manipulated models, specialized housing under barrier conditions for direct shipping to investigators, and maintenance under gnotobiotic conditions for microbiome manipulation.
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