Telemetry monitoring equipment to understand behavioral components of nutrition and metabolism

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My request is to purchase new Data Sciences International (DSI) telemetry physiologic monitoring equipment applicable for small animals (rodents). To date this equipment has been inaccessible to our Nutrition group at the University of Alberta due to limitations of technology and cost. The equipment will enable a unique and innovative composite of data acquisition that at present are not available anywhere within our research environment. The telemetric equipment is state-of the-art technology that can monitor blood pressure, temperature, heart electrical activity and physical activity, all remotely, on a continuous basis in the normal behavioral environment of the animal. Our research programs currently integrate nutrition, obesity and anorexia within a single neurochemical model of eating, body weight and physical activity, which clearly has global implications including risks for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and other weight-related disorders. We know that physical activity or exercise plays an important role in energy expenditure and energy balance in these disorders. Through cross-discipline collaborations at the U of A, we have developed small animal models for both obesity and activity anorexia. Dietary and nutritional supplementation has a substantive impact on basic physiological parameters affected during chronic disease including CVD parameters such as cardiac function (ECG), respiration and blood pressure. Moreover, the disruption of energy balance by wheel running during food-restriction requires more direct evidence at the physiological level and the impact of the new DSI equipment will enable innovative insights into this paradigm. Consequently, data collected from this new equipment will be interpreted across broad trans-disciplinary fields of nutrition, metabolism, behavioral and sociological contexts, which will allow a more comprehensive integrated HQP training environment. It will be the first time that nutritional-related programs at the U of A will have access to this type of equipment, in particular it will innovate the trans-disciplinary behavioral-nutritional approach to our research program.