Animalario

The Animal Facility is an area dedicated to the production and maintenance of experimental animals, aiding in research, essential techniques, and legal support for this duty. Most of the experimentation is carried out with genetically modified mice and zebra fish. Our animal facilities and equipment are specially designed for these models. The laboratory animal service provides a controlled environment for the animals, with periodic control of diet, water, temperature, air, housing, and husbandry conditions. The unit is separated into several areas: quarantine, conventional, and specific pathogen-free (SPF), depending on the microbiological status of the animals. We provide special housing conditions for conventional, genetically modified, and immunodeficient animals, depending on the experimental objectives. At the same time, a totally isolated biosafety area is dedicated to in vivo experiments using biological agents.

The animal facility staff gives service to laboratories for obtaining commercial lines and strains of animals, shipping animals for collaboration with other institutes, and maintenance, breeding, and generation of transgenic, knock-out and knock-in animals. These services allow control of the microbiological and genetic quality of the animals used in experimentation. The animal facility staff provides services for various techniques used in mouse research models. Veterinary staff gives research assistance in surgical techniques, selection of animal models, animal health surveillance, laboratory animal care, and animal well-being. We also organise courses to obtain accreditation for working with animals and manage colonies of genetically modified animals.

Our goal is to achieve research excellence following the 3R principles: reduction, refinement, and replacement of animal experiments.