Core--Animal and laboratory facility

Harvard University (Medical School), Boston MA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Description: (Taken directly from the application) The Animal and Laboratory Core will be at Harvard Medical School?s New England Regional Primate Research Center (NERPRC). The NERPRC was established in 1964 and its campus is located 25 miles west of Boston, MA. The NERPRC currently houses 1600 nonhuman primates and employs an average staff of 175 personnel including 19 full time faculty members and 25 postdoctoral fellows. The institution has a strong history of infectious disease research and has been instrumental in the development of a nonhuman primate model of HIV infection. The objective of the Animal and Laboratory Core of this application is to provide highly integrated clinical management and laboratory investigations to project leaders and individual investigators. The Animal and Laboratory Core will purchase, house and care for the macaques used in this program project. The core will be responsible for the daily clinical care of animals and animal procedures such as inoculating the animals with virus, blood draws, intestinal biopsies, administering food supplements, monoclonal antibodies, etc. The laboratory component of the core will also perform hematology, routine flow cytometry (CD3, 4, 8) on peripheral blood, microbiology, clinical chemistry, SIV isolation and quantitation, serology for SIV and potential pathogens, ova and parasite examination of feces and pathologic examination of all necropsies and biopsies performed on animals utilized in these studies. Many of these laboratory procedures were first developed by investigators at the NERPRC, are well established and have been published on extensively. Individuals responsible for these varied tasks are members of the NERPRC faculty and staff and have previously worked closely on numerous projects. This integrated and multi-disciplinary approach has been critical to the success of the AIDS research program at the NERPRC.