Animal Services

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PROJECT SUMMARY: ANIMAL SERVICES MODULE The Vanderbilt Vision Research Center (VVRC) includes faculty investigators with strong interest in discerning relationships between visual circuits and behavior, between cortical structures and physiology, and between brain regions and perception/behavior in non-human primate and prosimian species. These cognitive- and systems-level investigations require access to expert veterinary husbandry and surgical skills, especially for longitudinal studies requiring use of the same animal cohort over many months. The purpose of the VVRC Instrumentation Module is to provide a comprehensive veterinary service for support of vision research using non-human primates that is not covered by staff members supported by individual grants. This module is a VVRC-intrinsic core, housed in Wilson Hall and administered through the Department of Psychology, and is not part of a VUMC institutional facility; therefore, the service is provided to VVRC members by request and not through the VUMC Office of Research scholarship platform. In the current funding period the animal module contributed resources in support of 11 investigators with 55 publications resulting from use of the service. These are indicated as such in our Progress Report Core Publications by Investigator document. Availability of this module during the current period saved VVRC investigators over $240,905 in veterinary technician and facility costs that otherwise would have to be obtained elsewhere. A survey of researcher plans indicates that the use of this service will increase, with moderate to extensive use by 14 of 36 VVRC investigators. The Animal Services Module, housed in Wilson Hall near primary users, is directed by VVRC Investigator Jeff Schall, PhD. Using this space and personnel supported by this Core mechanism, the VVRC Animal Services Module will: (1) provide expert assistance with nonhuman primate surgical procedures, (2) provide training on best, aseptic, nonhuman primate surgical practices, and (3) support breeding of prosimian species used for vision research. These services and resources will enhance the scope of experimentation NEI-funded VVRC investigators conduct, promote innovation through specialized veterinary procedures to those who otherwise would not have such capabilities, including early-career vision scientists competing for extramural funding for their laboratories and established investigators who rely upon the use of non-human primates for their research.