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Rutgers Animal Care Newsletter - New Brunswick | June 2020
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I sincerely hope you and your family members are safe and healthy during this pandemic. Rutgers University Animal Care is with you in supporting your research. The University's Safety First Initiative should be the overarching guiding principle throughout this process, a shared community responsibility as we are laying steps for Returning to Research on campus. We must carefully abide by protective distancing (social distancing) and public health restrictions to minimize the possibility of an outbreak of COVID-19 on campus.
We are very excited to bring you Animal Care's second newsletter (summer edition) featuring new and current faculty highlights with their animal model and research focus. We continue to feature our core facilities and what they have to offer, provide updates on IACUC policies, upcoming events/training, and veterinary and husbandry happenings. If you would like to contribute to this newsletter or have feedback, please reach out to us at:
ruac@ored.rutgers.edu.
Sumanth Kumar Putta
Director of Veterinary Services & Attending Veterinarian
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Protocol Writing Assistance
Have some time on your hands due to the shutdown and wondering how to fill your days? Get a jump on your next protocol submission - new protocols, triennial reviews and amendments. The IACUC office is working remotely but we are still available to help you with writing your protocols prior to submission to the IACUC. This is very helpful if you have not worked in eIACUC yet. for experienced IACUC staff can assist in making the renewal process. If you have a protocol that was submitted into eIACUC in the early stages of implementation it is advisable to work with the IACUC staff to prepare your triennial renewal. The system has been upgraded with changes to some of the questions. Since the review process was so different, some issues were not included in the initial reviews done by IACUC staff, vets and IACUC members. Therefore, it is likely that you will need to make a number of changes to your triennial renewal.
Assistance will be conducted remotely via Webex or phone calls, no need to get out of your PJs.
To set up an appointment, contact
Liz Dodemaide
or
Kelly Albanese
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T
hank You to Our Dedicated CMR Clinical Veterinarians!
The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent University shutdown impacted biomedical research operations and presented new challenges for everyone. This is especially true of our research animals, since their well-being depends on the continuous care by both, the research staff and CMR veterinary care staff. Also, even during the University shutdown, IACUC must continue to perform its regulatory responsibilities.
As the IACUC semi-annual inspections were approaching for both Newark and
Legacy Rutgers campuses, the IACUC office, in consultation with the regulatory agencies designed a plan for the IACUC to perform the inspections while maintaining protective distancing. All facilities on the Newark and Legacy Rutgers campuses were inspected by our dedicated CMR veterinarians as well as all the labs that were not able to shut down their essential experiments and continued taking the animals to their labs. Completing this crucial task required extreme patience and dedication, and we would like to thank our clinical veterinarians in Newark: Peter Condobery and LaTisha Moody, and New Brunswick/Piscataway clinical veterinarians: David Reimer and John Hershey, as well as our Attending Veterinarian Sumanth Kumar-Putta for helping us complete the April and May IACUC semi-annual inspections and fulfill this important regulatory and legal responsibility.
Damir Hamamdzic
Compliance Administrator
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Dr. Rafiq Huda |
Assistant Professor
WM Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience
Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience
Before starting his lab at Rutgers, Rafiq completed his postdoctoral training in the lab of Mriganka Sur in the department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, where he studied prefrontal cortical mechanisms for motor planning and attention. Rafiq performed his PhD thesis work in the lab of Marco Martina in the department of Physiology at Northwestern University, where he studied how astrocyte-neuron interactions modulate synaptic function in brainstem respiratory circuits.
The long-term goal of the Huda lab is to understand how specific brain circuits contribute to key cognitive functions like decision making. Numerous neuropsychiatric disorders are associated with disruptions in decision making, and our work holds the promise of identifying novel circuit-based therapeutic avenues for these diseases. Current work in our lab emphasizes the role of specific neural circuits in sensory- and value-guided decisions. In addition to resolving the contribution of these circuits to various cognitive functions, our work will identify general principles for information flow and computation in brain circuits. We use the mouse model system and cutting-edge optical techniques such as two-photon microscopy and optogenetics to address these questions.
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Dr. Kevin Monahan |
Assistant Professor
Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
Before starting his lab at Rutgers, Kevin was a postdoc with Stavros Lomvardas at Columbia University, where he worked on the regulation of mouse olfactory receptor genes. Working in primary olfactory sensory neurons, he showed that olfactory receptor gene expression is controlled by specialized enhancer elements that are all bound by the same set of transcription factors, including Ebf, Lhx2, and Ldb1. He went on to show that these transcription factors allow the olfactory receptor enhancers to make inter-chromosomal contacts with each other and with the single active olfactory receptor gene. For his doctoral research, Kevin worked in Tom Maniatis's lab in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University. In the Maniatis lab, Kevin investigated the gene regulatory mechanisms controlling the stochastic expression of clustered protocadherin genes, a process that governs neuronal self-recognition and self-avoidance in mammals.
The Monahan lab is interested in how stochastic and epigenetic gene regulatory mechanisms shape the developing nervous system. We use a variety of molecular and genomic approaches to assay gene expression, chromatin structure (ATAC-seq), and nuclear architecture (Hi-C) in primary cells and tissues. We primarily work in the mouse olfactory system but are also working with collaborators to apply molecular and genomic approaches to new model organisms
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Research Corner: Animal Models
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The Bartlett Beatniks and The Research They Support
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By: Steven Cancellieri, Supervisor, Animal Care
New to the Bartlett Hall vivarium this year is a group of canaries referred to as variegated canaries. After researching their care requirements, we set out to prepare their new homes prior to their arrival. Interestingly, the birds were shipped to us from the vendor by the US Postal Service. Unsure about the condition in which the birds would arrive, they arrived in a specially made cardboard box with wood shavings on the bottom and a wooden perch. Scattered among the wood shavings were bird seed, millet spray, strawberries, and a water dish with a wet sponge. The box was lined with a heat reflective material to keep the birds warm. They arrived in great shape!
Also known as the American Singer Canary they are bred for their melodious song and their beauty of different color markings of yellow, black, brown, grey and white feathers. To our surprise, included in the shipment of canaries were two stand outs. Two of the canaries sported "Beatles Haircuts." These special birds have crests of feathers resembling "The Beatles" hairstyle from the 60's. They are Crested Canaries, but we like to call them our Bartlett Beatniks!
The canaries are enjoyable to care for- they are a very lively and cheerful. Their cages are equipped with perches of different sizes and heights, including a swing perch. They are fed a commercially available canary seed mix as their main diet. In addition, they are given millet sprays hanging in their cages and are also provided with cuttlebone and grit as sources of minerals and calcium. For a treat we provide a variety of fresh foods including apples, carrots and kale. A favorite of canary and caretaker alike, they are given a dish of water for their weekly bath. All of the birds really enjoy taking a bath and they are fun to watch!
It's been fun to have these delightful birds as a new addition to the vivarium. They treat us daily to their beautiful song and pleasant outgoing personalities. Please read on to learn about the research being done with the canaries in relation to other birds in Hawaii.
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The overall objective of our NSF funded Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases project is to understand current and future impacts of avian malaria in Hawaii. Avian malaria is a mosquito-transmitted disease that has contributed to significant population declines of Hawaiian honeycreepers, a gorgeous group of small birds that evolved in Hawaii. Avian malaria is common across the globe including mainland US and Alaska, but in Hawaii this disease is extremely lethal to native species.
Similarly, to human malaria, avian malaria is caused by Plasmodium, a mosquito-transmitted blood protozoan. However, bird Plasmodium are transmitted by a different group of mosquitoes and do not infect humans. Likewise, human malaria parasites do not infect birds.
At Rutgers' Center for Vector Biology (CVB) we are studying what happens when mosquitoes feed on a bird infected with Plasmodium.
We know that the parasite must change into different forms, invade mosquito organs, and multiply before it can be transmitted to a
nother bird. Infected mosquitoes try to fight the parasites just like our immune system combats viral and bacterial infections. However, the process is complex and still broadly unknown. One of our specific aims is to compare the genetic response of infected and uninfected mosquitoes to gain insights into the way mosquitoes and malaria parasites interact.
To perform the challenge experiments, we needed Plasmodium parasites from Hawaiian birds. After trying unsuccessfully to freeze infected bird blood for transport to mainland labs, collaborators at U. California Santa Cruz obtained viable Plasmodium infected blood from 'Amakihis'(a Hawaiian honeycreeper) in the Big Island. Instead of freezing it, they shipped us very small volumes of fresh blood samples, which we injected directly into canaries, our model hosts. Domestic canaries do not suffer high levels of distress from the Hawaiian avian malaria, but we confirmed that once infected they can easily infect Hawaiian mosquitoes. The domestic canaries for these experiments are receiving the best treatment possible by our colleagues at Bartlett Hall.
We created and now maintain at CVB a colony of Hawaiian Culex, an invasive species in Hawaii and the primary vectors of bird malaria there. In the lab we exposed canaries infected with malaria to mosquitoes, these mosquitoes became infected and were able to transmit the parasite to an uninfected bird. Individual vectors were frozen and will be analyzed using modern genetic tools so we can understand how they respond to the Plasmodium throughout the different stages of parasite development. We also aim to test strains of mosquitoes that are refractory to bird malaria (i.e. do not allow the parasite to develop). At the end of our project we may be able to tell why Hawaiian mosquitoes are unable to control the infection and are very competent at transmitting the parasite to another bird.
Francisco C. Ferreira Junior, DVM, Ph.D.
Center for Conservation Genomics, Smithsonian Institution
Center for Vector Biology, Rutgers University
Dina M. Fonseca, MS, Ph.D.
Director, Rutgers Center for Vector Biology
Professor, Entomology, Ecology&Evolution, Microbiology
SEBS, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
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Rutgers University Molecular Imaging Center (RUMIC)
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Brain Glucose Uptake
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located on the Livingston Campus, provides imaging resources for the non-invasive evaluation of structural features and biological processes in living systems, disease models, ex vivo organs and preserved specimens. Physical objects (e.g.biomaterials, viscous fluids, ice crystals, assembled electronics, polymers, medical devices, etc.) can also be evaluated. Comprehensive imaging modalities for the basic and preclinical sciences include MRI, PET/CT, microCT, nanoCT, Optical/X-ray Imaging, High-Resolution Ultrasound & Echocardiography Technologies.
Image reconstruction, animation, 3D display and quantitative image analysis can be conducted at RUMIC workstations or via remote access to advanced
VivoQuant
software.
The Center is adjacent to CMR animal holding facilities for serial imaging, anesthesia, surgery, animal treatment and veterinary care. In addition to consultation and experimental services, the Center offers periodic training and conducts research to improve existing imaging technologies. RUMIC's mission is to empower Rutgers investigators by promoting independent use of the imaging systems, however expert assistance is available.
RUMIC is led by Ed Yurkow, Director; Derek Adler, Manager; Patricia Buckendahl, CT Imaging Specialist; and Peter Kuhn, Sean Wang, and Shawn Wu, In Vitro / In Vivo Project Research Associates.
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Histological / ex vivo Samples
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Bone Mineral Density / Body Composition
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In vivo
Organ & Tissue Evaluation
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Congratulations!
Lauren Bright, Associate Director
Lauren Bright was recently promoted to Associate Director and is now directing the global training and rodent health surveillance programs across both North and South campuses. Prior to her role as Associate Director, Lauren was a clinical veterinarian on the New Brunswick campus. Before she came to Rutgers in 2017, Lauren completed her laboratory animal medicine residency at the University of Pennsylvania and received her DVM and PhD from Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine. She passed the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine board exam in 2019. You may reach Lauren Bright at
lab440@ored.rutgers.edu
. She is excited to be in the new role, and is looking forward to some training program updates.
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Congratulation on your MBA!
Matt Keller graduated from Rutgers with a Bachelor of Science in Animal Science, Lab Animal Option in May 2012. Shortly after graduating, he started working in the Bartlett Vivarium as an Animal Care Tech, while pursuing AALAS certification and a second undergraduate degree part-time. Matt achieved his AALAS certification at the LAT level in September 2013, followed by LATg certification in August 2014. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Economics in May 2017 and was accepted into the Rutgers part-time MBA program for Fall 2017. In March 2019, Matt joined Animal Care's Finance team as Program Coordinator. In this new role, Matt has helped standardize the mouse enrichment offerings and assisted in deploying the new Biofresh rodent bedding. Recently,
in May 2020 Matt completed his academic journey and obtained his MBA, specializing in Supply Chain Management.
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 LOCKDO
WN CHALLENGE!
A girl went to school for the first time and the teacher asked her, how old are you?
Girl: I don't know but, I know my mother's age is twice my age.
Teacher: How old is your mother?
Girl: I don't know but, I know my father is 5 years older than my mother.
Teacher: How old is your father?
Girl: I don't know but, I know the sum of our ages will give you one hundred.
a)
How old is the girl?
b)
How old is the mother?
c)
How old is the father?
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June 22, 2020-January 31.2021 (June, July, Fall series)
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- Have any exciting research-related news or events you want to share
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Copyright ©2020
, Rutgers University, an equal opportunity, affirmative action institution.
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