Freimann Life Science Center (FLSC) State-of-the-art animal research facility

1. Freimann Life Science Center Center for Zebrafish Research RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION HIGHLIGHT OVERVIEW LIST OF SERVICES • Freimann Life Science Center (FLSC) • State-of-the-art animal research facility • 30,000 square feet, flexible use • Fully accredited and registered • Highly trained, professional staff • Center for Zebrafish Research (CZR) • Housed in approximately 3,000 square feet • Consists of 8 double-sided racks and 38 single-sided racks that allow for a flexible arrangement of tanks from 1.5 to 8 liters in size • A separate room houses the zebrafish nursery • Racks are maintained on multiple independent life-support systems to minimize a catastrophic event to the entire system • Approximate total capacity 120,000 adult zebrafish (one of the largest systems in the Midwest) Freimann Life Science Center • Histopathology – preparation and histological interpretation of tissue samples. • Technical and surgical services provided by skilled, experienced staff. • Training of personnel for animal work. • Rodent breeding colony management. • Housing for rodents, rabbits, amphibians, fish, chickens, mini-pigs, non-human primates. • Center for Zebrafish Research • Generation of ENU-induced mutants and screening of mutant phenotypes. • Introduction of morpholinos into embryos and some adult tissues to assay for loss-of-function phenotypes of specific target proteins. • Microinjection of DNA constructs and subsequent analysis of transgenic lines. • Training of individuals and groups in the above mentioned techniques and general zebrafish husbandry. • Freimann Life Science Center • Animal modeling for testing anti-cancer compounds and vaccines (collaborations with Penn State University School of Medicine, Indiana University, Medical College of Wisconsin, private industry). • Histopathology support for cancer studies, toxicity evaluation, and biomedical engineering applications. • Surgical services (e.g., experimental hernia repair; tumor debulking; wound repair studies; biomaterial evaluation). • Evaluation of imaging agents (collaborations with Goshen Center for Cancer Care and UND investigators). • Research efforts over last three years have produced 30 published manuscripts, 14 meeting abstracts, and 5 patent applications. • Intellectual property associated with novel vaccine adjuvant and cancer vaccine licensed to industry • Center for Zebrafish Research • Collaborations with groups from the University of Michigan, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to generate a variety of transgenic zebrafish lines. • Generated antibodies against zebrafish proteins have been distributed to over 75 labs throughout the world. • Collaboration with groups from Duke University, Vanderbilt University, the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Texas at Austin, and Lehigh University to use the electroporation of morpholinos into adult tissues that we developed to investigate a variety of questions. • Generation of morphant embryos to study the function of target proteins for collaborators at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Texas at Austin, and Lehigh University. • Hosted the Midwest Zebrafish Conference in June of 2007 that was attended by nearly 100 researchers. RESOURCES FLSC: State-of-the-art individually Capability for housing non-ventilated caging-standard human primates for rodents Certified technical staff available Lobund-Wistar rat model of to perform or assist with surgical metastasizing prostate cancer and other technical procedures CZR: Fish are maintained on Microinjection rigs are available an open system that is to introduce DNA constructs automated to control for the into embryos to generate temperature, pH, and salinity. transgenic lines (above) and The CZR currently maintains morpholinos into embryos and three wild-type stocks (AB, Wik, adults to determine the and Tubingen), 34 mutant stocks, loss-of-function phenotype and 95 transgenic lines. of desired proteins. QUALITY CONTROL AND ASSURANCES • Freimann Life Science Center • Routine rodent colony health monitoring • Board-certified laboratory animal veterinarian • Accredited by Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) • PHS Assurance, USDA Registration CONTACT INFORMATION Freimann Life Science Center Dr. Mark A. Suckow, DVM, Dipl. ACLAM, Director Tel.: (574)631-6085 Email: suckow.1@nd.edu Center for Zebrafish Research Dr. David R. Hyde, Ph.D. Howard J. McKenna C.S.C. Memorial Director Tel.: (574)631-8054 Email: dhyde@nd.edu