Rebuilding a Mouse Behavioural Neuroscience Facility

这项申请是为莱斯布里奇大学加拿大行为神经科学中心(CCBN)的14名NSERC资助的神经科学家提供必要的设备，以便能够对实验室小鼠进行安置和测试。CCBN的特点是共享基础设施，由跨六个不同部门的26名调查人员使用。CCBN的研究项目涵盖广泛的领域，从围产期大脑发育、受伤后恢复，到与年龄相关的认知衰退，研究熟练的运动、注意力、社会行为、记忆和决策。我们的研究项目在很大程度上依赖于实验室小鼠的使用，如转基因模型、药理学研究以及神经可塑性的高分辨率体内分子成像。不幸的是，由于2009年的疾病暴发和2010年漫长的设施净化过程，我们失去了老鼠的住所和测试能力。我们的大多数老鼠行为测试设备都不能高压灭菌，或者在清洗过程中损坏，不得不丢弃。从那时起，我们的老鼠住所已经翻新，我们的设施和健康程序超出了加拿大动物保护委员会(CCAC)的预期。我们处于良好的地位，并为翻新我们的鼠标外壳和测试设施做好了充分准备。这项要求是用现代化的老鼠住房系统取代受损的基础设施，包括架子、笼子和健康监测系统，以及专门用于老鼠的一套基本的基本行为测试设备。我们正在申请资金，以购买关键物品，以便紧急更换损坏的老鼠外壳和测试设备。缺乏这种必要的设备严重阻碍了我们由NSERC资助的研究和培训工作。所要求的设备是我们NSERC资助的研究计划的核心，将支持300多名HQP的研究和培训。

This application is for essential equipment to enable housing and testing of laboratory mice by 14 NSERC-funded neuroscientists at the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience (CCBN) at the University of Lethbridge. The CCBN is characterized by shared infrastructure that is used by 26 investigators spanning six different departments. Research programs at the CCBN span a wide range of areas, ranging from perinatal brain development, recovery after injury, to age-related cognitive decline, the study of skilled movements, attention, social behaviour, memory and decision-making. Our research programs critically depend on the use of laboratory mice, such as in transgenic models, in pharmacological studies, and for high-resolution in vivo molecular imaging of neural plasticity. Unfortunately, due to a disease outbreak in 2009 and a lengthy facility decontamination process in 2010 we had lost the mouse housing and test capacity. The majority of our mouse behavioural test equipment was not autoclavable or got damaged in the cleaning process and had to be discarded. Since then our mouse housing space has been renovated and our facility and health procedures are exceeding Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC) expectations. We are in excellent standing and well prepared to refurbish our mouse housing and test facility. This request is to replace damaged infrastructure with a modern mouse housing system, including racks, cages and a health monitoring system, and a basic suite of essential behavioural test equipment dedicated to the use in mice. We are requesting funds to purchase critical items to enable the urgent replacement of damaged mouse housing and testing equipment. The lack of this essential equipment severely hampers our NSERC-funded research and training efforts. The requested equipment is central to our NSERC-funded research programs and will support the research and training of over 300 HQP.