Mouse NeuroBehavior Core
!!! UNDER DEVELOPMENT !!!
Mouse models have become apopular and successful approach to elucidating the physiological and pathological roles of individual genes and are truly crucial to accelerate the development of effective treatments and cures forAlzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS, MS and other neurodegenerative diseases. The increasing demand for mouse behavioral studies within theneuroscience community has led the Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center to develop a major new, state of the art mouse behavior core facility, located in the Longwood medical area and carefully designed to meet the exacting standards required for this type of work. The Mouse NeuroBehavior Core (MNBC) will provide the Harvard community and other investigators access to a broad range of reliable behavioral/cognitive tests necessary to analyze and interpret the impact of a genetic, surgical or pharmacologic manipulation on specific behaviors.
Resources
Laboratory Space and Equipment
The MNBC is a ~2800 sq. ft. lab facility located on the 9th floor of the Harvard Institute of Medicine building (see map and directions). It comprises 11 behavioral testing rooms, 1 surgery/pathology room, an animal colony room, as well as office space for the core staff and workstations for visiting investigators. The design of the facility takes into consideration the highest standards for conducting mouse behavioral research and for complying with regulatory guidelines related to animal research.
The behavioral equipment at the MNBC includes 32 Standard Size Operant Chambers (Med Associates), 16 Metabolic Activity Chambers (CLAMS, Columbus Instruments), 1 Water Maze Pool (TSE), 2 Radial Arm Mazes (Lafayette Instruments), 16 Mouse Open Field Chambers (Med Associates), 1 rotarod (Ugo Basile), 1 Grip Strength Meter (Ugo Basile), 10 Y-mazes (custom made, Plastic Crafts), 12 Large Open Field Square Arenas (custom made, Plastic Crafts), 8 Startle Sensitivity / PPI Chambers (Med Associates), 1 T-Maze (custom made, Harvard Shop). For most behavioral tests, data collection is performed using specialized software provided by the respective suppliers (Med Associates; Columbus Instruments), or by computer-assisted video-tracking systems (CleverSys Inc.).
Animal Housing
The animal colony room is located within the core facility and will function as a satellite animal facility of the HIM/NRB vivarium. It has been designed for a maximum capacity of 770 cages on high-density ventilated cage racks (Tecniplast), providing enough flexibility for both short-term and long-term projects. The Animal Resources and Comparative Medicine (ARCM) staff will provide husbandry and veterinary care for the mice within the core facility. All the animal procedures listed below are part of a single animal protocol being considered by IACUCs from several institutions.
Behavioral Tests
The battery of behavioral tests available at the MNBC allows a comprehensive assessment of neurological functions (motor coordination/agility, strength, exploratory activity, metabolic activity), emotional responses (anxiety, depression, startle sensitivity, and frustration), sensori-motor gating (pre-pulse inhibition) and cognitive functions (attention, working memory, recognition memory, spatial learning and memory, procedural learning and memory, extinction learning,reversal learning, contextual fear memory).
Surgery / Necropsy
Very often
it is necessary to either perform surgery prior to behavioral testing or collect tissue samples after completion of a behavioral study. For that purpose, a surgery / necropsy room is available within the core facility; it is equipped for stereotaxic surgery (lesions, icv cannulations, intrathecal injections, etc.) and for necropsy / tissue collection (plasma/blood, CSF, brain tissues, other tissues). Note: these services are only offered for mice
run in behavioral tests.
Other services
Training will
be provided by the core staff to students, post-docs, and PIs interested in learning about behavioral science and those who would like to run their own studies within the core. Training is mandatory for first time users, whether they already have behavioral expertise or not. The core staff will also provide assistance in data analyses & interpretation, grant preparation, manuscript
writing, etc.
Access and Utilization
The MNBC is a fee-for-use / fee-for-service facility, with fees that vary depending on the type of activity (training, consultation, instrument use, or full service provided by core staff) and the complexity and duration of the project. Although priority is given to HNDC members investigating neurodegenerative diseases and the CNS, the facility is also available to any academic investigators within the Harvard community and the greater-Boston research community, and under special arrangements, to the commercial sector.
Before using
the facility, investigators are required to submit a user form including a brief research summary of their proposed project to the MNBC director,
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. Users will be able to access an online calendar to check instrument availability prior to booking time. All booking will be done directly with the
core staff.
First time
users must be trained by the core staff and receive approval from their respective IACUCs before they can be added to the MNBC animal protocol. Users who would like to develop/implement new animal procedures within the core need to work with the core director and their respective IACUC to create a new animal protocol or submit an amendment to the existing animal protocol. Transfer of animals to the facility will ideally occur 2 weeks prior to conducting behavioral studies (providing an important acclimation period). To minimize the
risks of infection within the core facility, we will only accept mice from relatively safe sources such as established barrier facilities or trusted suppliers. Otherwise mice will be temporarily housed nearby in a quarantine facility. Animals entering the MNBC will not be transferred back to barrier facilities.