ShEEP Request for Small Animal Integrated Behavioral and Physiological Assessment Core

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The primary goal of this proposal is to establish a Small Animal Integrated Behavioral and Physiological Assessment Core that will provide clinically relevant tools and services necessary to support and advance research that directly impacts the health of our Veterans. The VA Small Animal Integrated Behavioral and Physiological Assessment Core is an integrated system of hardware (small animal behavioral testing components) that is driven by a central software control platform, created by Noldus Information Technology, Inc. The Noldus EthoVision XT System represents a state-of-the-art integrated system allowing for automated, quantitative, comprehensive behavioral and physiological assessment of small animals centrally controlled by the EthoVision XT platform. This system allows for a single animal to be analyzed for multiple, clinically relevant parameters to generate a behavioral and physiological profile for each animal as a function of time, injury model, disease progression, or intervention. These assessments are directly applicable to genetic disorders, diseases, and injury models that represent those affecting our Veterans such as cardiac disease, neurologic illness, musculoskeletal pathologies (fracture healing, osteoarthritis, multiple sclerosis), stroke, Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and spinal cord/traumatic brain injury (SCI/TBI). This core will complement the existing VA Animal Research Surgical Suite, the VA Cellular and Molecular Evaluation Core, and the VA Histology and Imaging Core facilities within Research Service at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center. Together, these comprehensive and unparalleled services will provide a turn-key suite of surgical, behavioral, physiological, and biochemical methodologies that facilitates model evaluation that spans from whole animals to single cells. Our investigators have identified three primary aims that will be accomplished through this integrative technology: 1) To facilitate basic discovery and establish relationships between behavioral and physiological deficits and the presence of disease; 2) To demonstrate efficacy of interventional methodologies and therapeutic strategies designed to treat disease; and 3) To integrate holistic assessments and biochemical outcomes to provide comprehensive analysis of disease models. Notably, the Integrated Behavioral and Physiological Assessment Core is broadly applicable across the diverse research efforts of our local VAMC investigators including studies in cardiology, neuroscience, immunology, stem cell development and function, in addition to behavioral science research focusing on post-traumatic stress disorders and addiction. Incorporating this Integrated Behavioral and Physiological Assessment Core will greatly strengthen the research capabilities of our station, facilitating basic scientific discovery leading to the rapid implementation of cutting-edge personalized medical treatment for our Nation’s Veterans, a specific directive outlined in the Secretary’s Blueprint for Excellence that is directly relevant to the VA Mission.