HabiTrak: low-cost, wireless home cage health and activity monitoring.

Vulintus, Llc, Plano TX

Investigators

Abstract

Project Abstract Currently available commercial systems for automated home cage health and behavioral monitoring of small animal research models are typically expensive and do not work universally with researchers? existing vivarium cage systems. For this Phase I SBIR project, Vulintus, Inc. proposes to develop and validate ?HabiTrak?, a miniature low-cost, wireless device for continuously monitoring small animal health and activity inside any standard commercial home cage. The HabiTrak design leverages recent advances in sensor miniaturization to combine a suite of thermographic and environmental sensors in a small, robust package designed to be placed inside the home cage. During this Phase I project, Vulintus, in collaboration with Dr. Megan Detloff?s lab at the Drexel University College of Medicine, will conduct bench and animal feasibility testing with HabiTrak prototypes. The feasibility of HabiTrak will be judged on the accuracy and utility of the measurements the device provides and how easily the system can be deployed into existing research institutions. HabiTrak?s small, low-cost design, technology, and ease of deployment will hopefully encourage widespread adoption of automated, unsupervised home cage health and behavioral assessments.