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August 2024

Animal Care

News and Announcements

Digitizing Animal Care's Vivarium


As we continue to move towards our goal of digitizing Animal Care’s vivarium, we are pleased to announce Dr. Jeetendra Eswaraka has been awarded an R24 grant “Harnessing the power of digital caging and artificial intelligence (AI) to improve animal welfare and husbandry operations at Rutgers University-New Brunswick”  


The grant funds will be used to convert the current Nelson facility and provide capacity for 2,240 additional DVC cages that will be implemented over the course of FY25. The DVC system will offer several research benefits such as detecting early clinical signs of disease, any discomfort faced by animals, identifying bedding condition, and will improve the overall animal welfare and operational efficiency of the program.

We currently have two rooms in the Research Tower facility utilizing the DVC racks that have allowed several PI labs to try the technology. These labs have all been provided with personalized review and training of the analytics system with their specific cages to enable a better understanding of the technology.

(Research Tower Room with DVC Racks)

In addition to the Research Tower, we have DVC cage installations on the North campus. As these systems become more available across the various facilities, CMR staff will continue to be trained on its use, allowing additional researchers to get onboarded and utilize the technology.  

 

We recently reached out to our current faculty users of the DVC technology to share their experience and how this technology is benefiting their research objectives. Here is what Dr. Aaron Milstein has to say:


"We have a mouse with a genetic variant that mimics a human brain development disorder. The mouse and humans with the GNB1 I80T mutation exhibit absence epileptic seizures. Humans also display gross motor deficits, although the mice do not have obvious problems with locomotion. Our goal with the DVC monitoring is to determine if the animals display any differences in their movement patterns, or if periods of immobility could be used to estimate absence seizure frequency. So far the data have revealed an unexpected change in circadian patterns of movement, which is interesting."


-Dr. Aaron Milstein, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience and Cell Biology, RWJMS

Resident Faculty at the Center for Advanced Biotechnology & Medicine, RBHS

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Auto Watering System for Cancer Center


We are pleased to announce that Dr. Bhupinder Singh has been awarded an R24 grant for the development and implementation of an “Automatic Watering System (AWS) for the Cancer Center's animal facility in Newark at the New Jersey Medical School.”


This cutting-edge project will transition the facility from the current labor-intensive hydropack water process, where pouches that are manually prepared and placed on cages, to a state-of-the-art automatic watering system. The new system will provide rodents with on-demand access to reverse osmosis (RO) water through high-quality drinking valves directly in their cages.


The shift to AWS will significantly reduce labor time, increase operational efficiency, and enhance the reliability of your research studies by ensuring consistent water quality and availability.

The IACUC office recently rolled out significant upgrades to eIACUC 10.0


What is new in this upgrade?


  • Updated help text throughout the protocol to assist in protocol writing
  • Revised Amendment Summary page to simplify changes and protocol routing
  • Strains page automatically sorted in alphabetical order
  • The PI Supervisor/Chair box was added to the Basic Information page of the protocol 
  • Enhanced dashboard that allows pinning protocols and customizing inboxes


For more details or for support, please contact:


NewBrunswickIACUC@rutgers.edu or NewarkIACUC@rutgers.edu


Gnotobiotic Core


The core has produced and supplied over 100 germ-free (GF) C57BL/6 and Swiss Webster mice to Principal Investigators to aid in their microbiome research. The core has also introduced a new service for the rederivation of transgenic lines into GF mice, successfully providing this service to three different labs. This year, the core has trained several new gnotobiotic lab users across all campuses in aseptic technique and offer hands-on refresher training available upon request. Please visit their website for more information https://research.rutgers.edu/animal-care/gnotobiotic-core

Faculty Highlight

Bobby Brooke Herrera, PhD

Assistant Professor, Rutgers Global Health Institute

Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Infectious Diseases

Resident Scientist, Child Health Institute of NJ, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Email: bherrera@globalhealth.rutgers.edu


Dr. Bobby Brooke Herrera is a joint recruit to Rutgers as a Resident Scientist of the Child Health Institute of New Jersey, Core Member of the Rutgers Global Health Institute, and Assistant Professor of Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and a Presidential Scholar. Dr. Herrera's research aims to translate insights from successful adaptive immunity into effective diagnostics and vaccines for global infectious diseases


Research Interest: In global regions where Aedes mosquitoes are common, the ongoing danger of viruses like Zika remains a concern. Despite Zika cases usually being mild, the risk of severe illness, including birth defects in babies, and neurological problems in people of all ages, highlights the need for improved preventative measures. The Herrera lab is working on a new vaccine approach that focuses on stimulating T cells, which play a crucial role in fighting off infections. Their aim is to use this approach to create prophylactic vaccines and test them in mouse models that protect against Zika and other emerging viruses.

Training Update

The training team has updated the Rodent Survival Surgery training process to make it more streamlined and accessible for PIs. The previous training requirements included two online modules and a virtual synchronous training course. The new requirement replaces this process and is one single AALAS Learning Library module entitled "Introduction to Rodent Surgery at RU." This module includes the most up to date information on rodent survival surgery, anesthesia, analgesia, and Rutgers-specific documentation requirements, so it serves as a wonderful reference for all surgeons. As the module can be accessed on demand, this will make the surgeon training process faster than our previous process.


The updated module can be accessed in the AALAS Learning Library, by logging into eIACUC, then clicking “online training modules” on the left side menu. Once the AALAS Learning Library opens, click on “Tracks” on the left side menu. The module can be found under the Introduction to Rodent Surgery” track. 

The surgical observation requirement remains unchanged. Following completion of the module, all new surgeons (those beginning surgery after July 1, 2021) must complete a surgical observation. These can be scheduled by completing the Surgical Observation questionnaire. Please contact the training team if you have questions regarding these changes or requirements.

A progress bar has been added to CRS to help new animal users joining better understand what mandatory trainings they need to complete and what they’re missing. Also built into the function was to prevent new users from signing up for a facility tour until all pre-requisites are completed for better compliance of who gets access to our animal vivaria. If your team will be onboarding new members, please be sure to visit our Training and Development website.

Training Stats

From March-August 2024


  • 236 people have been onboarded into our Animal Use program since March 2024.


  • The training team has held over 65+ in person training sessions from March until August, reviewing items such as handling/restraint and injections.  


  • The training team has coordinated an AALAS certification review course at the LAT level. We had four employees benefit from this training opportunity. Thanks to Tracy Davis, Sr. Procedures Analyst for the efforts with this endeavor!

Veterinary Resident Updates

(L to R: Dr. Joseph Collins, Dr. Roseann Kehoe, Dr. Kennedy Miller, Dr. Al Feinberg)

Drs. Al Feinberg and Kennedy Miller were each awarded competitive grants to pursue their resident research projects.


Dr. Feinberg received Darrell E. Hoskins Memorial Research Grant 2024 for “Evaluating digital biomarkers using an artificial intelligence caging system to assess pain and distress in post-surgery mice”. She is working with Dr. Jeetendra Eswaraka on DVC cage analysis of post operative pain. Dr. Miller received 2024 ACLAM Foundation Grant for “The Use of Fumagillin for the Clearance of Pseudoloma neurophilia in Zebrafish Larvae”. She is working with Dr. Miskolci on zebrafish pathogen eradication.


Congratulations to both, we can’t wait to see what your research can teach us.

Dr. Joseph Collins recently presented his work on DVC cage change frequency at the ACLAM Forum meeting. His presentation was positively received, and he was a great representative of the RUAC team. 


Dr. Erica Lachenauer (’23) has passed her ACLAM board examination!

In June, Dr. Roseann Kehoe graduated from our Laboratory Animal Medicine residency program. Dr. Kehoe is currently employed as a clinical veterinarian on our North campus.


Congratulations Dr. Kehoe, we’re so glad you’re on the team!

Welcome our new resident!


Dr. Heather Vorwerk


Dr. Vorwerk joined Rutgers University in July 2024 as a resident veterinarian. She graduated from Ross University January 2024, and obtained a Master’s of Laboratory Animal Science degree from Drexel University in 2018. Outside of Rutgers, she enjoys playing roller derby and hanging out with her bearded dragon, Hemingway.



Connect with Us

If you would like to contribute, share research-related news, events, or simply have feedback, send us a message at ruac@research.rutgers.edu. We'd love to hear from you!