ShEEP Request for Small Animal Integrated Behavioral and Physiological Assessment Core

该提案的主要目标是建立一个小动物综合行为和生理 评估核心，将提供支持和推进 直接影响我们退伍军人健康的研究。VA小动物综合行为和 生理评估核心是一个集成的硬件系统（小动物行为测试 组件），由Noldus信息技术公司创建的中央软件控制平台驱动， Inc. Noldus动物运动轨迹跟踪系统代表了一种最先进的集成系统， 定量、全面的小动物行为和生理评估， 动物运动轨迹跟踪系统平台。该系统允许对单个动物进行多项临床分析， 相关参数以生成作为时间函数的每只动物的行为和生理概况， 损伤模型、疾病进展或干预。这些评估直接适用于遗传 代表那些影响我们退伍军人的疾病，疾病和损伤模型，如心脏病， 神经系统疾病，肌肉骨骼病变（骨折愈合，骨关节炎，多发性硬化症），中风， 阿尔茨海默病（AD）和脊髓/创伤性脑损伤（SCI/TBI）。这一核心将补充 现有VA动物研究手术室、VA细胞和分子评价核心以及VA 组织学和成像研究服务的核心设施在拉尔夫H。约翰逊退伍军人医疗中心。 总之，这些全面和无与伦比的服务将提供一个交钥匙套件的外科，行为， 生理学和生物化学方法学，有助于从整个动物进行模型评估 单个细胞。我们的研究人员已经确定了三个主要目标，将通过这一点来实现 综合技术：1）促进基本发现，并建立行为和 生理缺陷和疾病的存在; 2）证明介入方法的有效性 和治疗策略，旨在治疗疾病;和3）整合整体评估和生化 结果提供疾病模型的全面分析。值得注意的是， 生理评估核心广泛适用于我们当地VAMC的各种研究工作 研究人员包括心脏病学、神经科学、免疫学、干细胞发育和功能的研究， 此外，行为科学研究侧重于创伤后应激障碍和成瘾。 这一综合行为和生理评估核心将大大加强 我们站的研究能力，促进基础科学发现，导致快速实施 为我们国家的退伍军人提供最先进的个性化医疗，这是一项具体的指令， 部长的卓越蓝图，这是直接相关的VA使命。

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.