Laboratory Animals Support Unit

We continue to maintain over 60,000 mice in the SPF area and 1,500 mice in an infected animal area. The SPF area also contains 1,000 germ-free or gnotobiotic mice in vinyl isolator rooms (Figure) and in vinyl isolation bio-bubble rooms. The former are used by several IMS research groups, in particular the mucosal immunologists, and the latter are for “humanized mice”. In addition, we have maintained the biosafety level 3 (ABSL3) room for infectious diseases research, such as with COVID-19. The ABSL3 room has high negative pressure and Individually Vented Cage systems (IVCs) and has the capacity to breed 150 mice. We introduce mouse lines into the SPF area via a combination of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and embryo transfer methods and have also generated cryo-stocks of genetic resources (frozen embryos and sperm) for 724 lines. We also maintain relatively large colonies of several commonly used strains, such as Rag1 KO and Cre deleters, and provide them to users on demand. We have also provided technical assistance to generate knockout and transgenic mice (93 lines). In addition, we have created 8 lines of germ-free mice.

We have generated genetically modified mice to improve the efficiency of transplantation of human hematopoietic stem cells into NOD.Cg-Prkdcscid Il2rgtm1Wjl/SzJ (NSG) mice by better “humanizing” the host strain. For this purpose, we have introduced large genomic fragments containing human genes encoding MHC, cytokines, adhesion molecules, virus receptors, and others into the NSG mice. We maintain such transgenic and knock-in mice.