Vivarium

The Institute houses a pathogen-free barrier facility that allows for the breeding of specialized transgenic- and immune-deficient mouse strains and a full range of related services. It consists of approximately 10,500 square feet of shower-in, disease-free housing for experimental mice, along with 14 holding/procedure rooms. Resources within the vivarium include an animal irradiator for transplantation procedures, stereotactic equipment for brain injections, anesthesia machines, behavioral testing rooms, and connection to a variety of stem cell imaging modalities through CMGI.

The immune-deficient mouse service performs procedures on NOD/SCID, NOG/Rag -/- and NOD/SCID/ IL2Rg (gamma chain)-/- mice. Induced pluripotent stem cell lines generated for investigators can be tested for pluripotentiality (teratoma formation), a hallmark of the induction process. We offer rule-out-tumorigenicity testing for mesenchymal stem/stromal cell batches, before and after transduction, at varying multiplicities of infection. Implanted animals are housed in a clean barrier facility (3 or 6 months) and then sent to the UC Davis Comparative Pathology Laboratory for a full tissue toxicity workup and report in support of IND submissions.

Contacts: 

Jan Nolta  |  janolta@health.ucdavis.edu  
Justin Graham  |  916-703-9300  |  jmgraham@health.ucdavis.edu