Animal Facility & Experimental Models
Biogem Service Animal Facility (AF) has an extension of 1000 sqm including a Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) area able to host up to 30000 animals such as:
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Mouse | |
Rat | |
Guinea Pig | |
Rabbit | |
AF is allowed to use rodents, rabbits and zebrafish for biomedical research by the Ministry of Health with Ministerial Decree No. 12/2016-UT dated 29 September 2016 according to D.Lgs. 26/2014 (March 14th, 2014), concerning the protection of animals used for scientific purposes. AF has an internal Ethics Committee “Organismo Preposto al Benessere Animale” (OPBA). AF is certified by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO 9001:2015) and the experimental activities are conducted following specific Standard Operative Procedures (SOPs) in order to manage, standardize and guide operators and, moreover, to ensure the animal welfare.
MIR AF applies the 3Rs principles: REFINEMENT is applied, through the use of environmental enrichment, the use of sophisticated technologies for the in vivo imaging, as well as the IVIS spectrum (PerkinElmer), Doppler VEVO 2100 (Visualsonics) and microCT SkyScan 1178 (Bruker), in order to refine experimental procedures by reducing the invasiveness of the in vivo protocols and, moreover, to reduce (REDUCTION), as much as possible, the number of animals enrolled in experimental procedures. REPLACEMENT is applied through the literature research and the preliminary in vitro studies.
Flexibility is core to our in vivo services, giving clients the possibility to specifically design studies, from route of administration to dosing regimens and endpoint analysis. Housing and management of mice colonies according to the SPF standard on the basis of FELASA guidelines Technical and veterinarian assistance for defining experimental protocols in order to monitor and keep animal welfare Acute inflammatory diseases model such as rheumatoid arthritis and cystitis Metabolic diseases models: diabetes type 1 and 2, obesity, hypercholesterolemia Zebrafish Models of Human Disease Experimental Activities
