Animal Core

The goal of this Program Project is to develop novel anti-tuberculosis vaccines that are safe and effective. Therefore, animal experiments involving virulent tuberculosis strains are a critical and essential component of the P01. The Animal Core, a state-of-the-art, well-staffed facility that strives to provide a safe, efficient, and cost-effective environment for the conduction of experiments using a variety of murine tuberculosis models, will provide invaluable services for animal studies proposed in each of the three projects of the Program Project proposal. The major goal of the Animal Core is to provide researchers of the Program Project with the technical support and training necessary for successful conduction of animal experiments that are requisite to successful development of novel vaccines. The PI and the staff of the Animal Core, who have extensive experience in modeling tuberculosis in mice, will also assist in experimental design. As a central program that services three individual components, the Animal Core can be expected to foster sharing of the resources available (for example, breeding and maintenance of specialty mice), stimulate scientific exchanges and collaboration, as well as train inexperienced young investigators interested in murine tuberculosis models. A substantial number of researchers inexperienced in animal experimentation have been trained to work in our biosafety level 3 Animal Core in the last funding period. In addition, physical expansion has let to doubling of the amount of space available for use by the Program Project investigators. Last but not least, many new pieces of equipment have been acquired including two Baker/Madison aerosolization machines that are currently fully operative, have greatly enhanced the efficiency of the facility. Based on the progress made in the last funding period, the Animal Core has clearly fulfilled its goals. We anticipate the Animal Core to continue to play an important role in facilitating animal experimentation for all the researchers who participate in the Program Project.