Animal Models Core

The Animal Models Core (AMC) is a valuable resource to aid Rhode Island researchers in generating high-quality data. In addition to providing consulting services and assistance conducting small animal experiments, the core has multiple technologies to support basic and clinical research projects.

Services

The Core provides access to the in vivo imaging system (IVIS) to monitor infections in living animals. Among its many advantages, the IVIS enhances robustness and reproducibility by measuring outcomes longitudinally in the same animal while decreasing the total number of animals that are required.

Expanded technical offerings in the AMC include a multimode plate reader, droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) system, and a multi-parametric flow cytometer:

• The plate reader measures transmission, fluorescence, luminescence, TRF, hTRF, and fluorescence polarization, and is upgradable with additional cartridges.
• The ddPCR system directly measures the number of RNA copies in a sample.
• The flow cytometer is equipped with multiple lasers and can assess a wide range of epitopes on tissue culture cells or cells from infected animals using 19 fluorescent channels plus forward and side scatter.

Additional Services

The Core staff offers other services such as blinding of experiments when assessments may be subjective. Blinding to treatment groups enhances studies with robust, unbiased data. The AMC is also a resource for investigators by providing consulting and advice on designing and executing experiments. The Core also offers guidance to researchers through the IACUC process.

Animal Models Core Team

Core Director: Gerard Nau, MD