Modern exercise suite for basic research in small rodents

我们的联合研究项目集中在阐明控制几种组织细胞代谢的新机制。运动代表了对代谢稳态的快速扰动，因此已成为我们代谢控制机制研究的基石，因此对于每个独立的研究项目都是绝对必要的。

Our combined research programs focus on elucidating novel mechanisms controlling cellular metabolism in several tissues. Exercise represents a rapid perturbation to metabolic homeostasis, and therefore has become the cornerstone of our mechanistic research pertaining to metabolic control, and thus is absolutely essential for each independent research program. We are requesting funds for a small rodent exercise suite costing ~$100,000 ($73,870 USD). This equipment consists of a treadmill accommodating 6 rats or 12 mice simultaneously to replace broken equipment, as well as a treadmill and running wheels that are modular attachments for our existing Comprehensive Laboratory Animal Monitoring System (CLAMS) metabolic caging system. This modular infrastructure will be used with our existing CLAMS unit and allow us to measure energy expenditure and substrate oxidation during exercise, significantly enhancing the quality of data that is generated. This infrastructure is ideal for our purposes as the running wheels fit inside our existing single animal housing, allowing us to regulate exercise duration and intensity within the mouse enclosure while continuing to monitor whole body fuel utilization. Moreover, the modular treadmills (one for mice and another for rats) interface with the CLAMs unit to determine the aerobic capacity of animals. We require the requested system for two primary reasons: 1) the equipment is urgently needed to maintain our research productivity and HQP training as two of our current rodent treadmills are broken, and because of their advancing age cannot be fixed, and 2) the requested equipment will expand our capabilities that will enable us to study energy expenditure and fuel utilization more accurately/comprehensively. As a result, the requested equipment represents a critical component of advancing our research programs and ensuring HQP have access to the necessary technology to address leading edge questions in our field. In addition, the requested equipment will support the research of ~13 NSERC-funded laboratories in the Department of Human Health and Nutritional Sciences (HHNS) with >50 HQP currently using our existing small rodent metabolic suite. This is an extremely cost-effective proposal, as the requested equipment will optimize our existing equipment, but only represents <5% of the total investment (NSERC+CFI) in our departmental metabolic animal facility in the past 10 years.