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“Animal Studies Performed
by Core Service Laboratories”
A number of Core Service Laboratories have been developed to provide the
expertise, equipment, and protocols to conduct specialized procedures on live
animals. The Core Laboratories are shared resources that provide service to
research Investigators who may not have the technical resources in their own
laboratories. Examples include:
Transgenic and Gene Targeting, MicroPet, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Behavioral
Phenotyping, and Metabolic Phenotyping Cores.
The activities of each Core Service Laboratory (Core Laboratory) are
covered under their own animal use protocol approved by the Institutional
Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). The
animal use protocol of each Core Laboratory has detailed descriptions of the specific
standard protocols and procedures that will be used routinely in the Core
Laboratory.
Investigators planning to use
the services provided by a Core Laboratory must first have their own approved
animal use protocol on file with the IACUC that includes these procedures. The Investigator’s individual animal
use protocol must describe the scientific rationale for having specific
procedures performed and the number of animals that will be used. The individual protocol must make specific
reference to the use of the Core Laboratory and state explicitly that the Core
Laboratory’s standard protocol will be followed. In this way, the detailed descriptions of
standard procedures (how the specific procedures are performed) are not
required in the Investigator’s animal use protocol. In addition, the animal use protocol should
contain an explanation of what will happen to the animals once the services
provided by the Core Laboratory have been completed. NOTE: The Core Laboratory’s Director must sign-off on the proposed
protocol before it is submitted to the IACUC, to assure that the Core
Laboratory is aware of the proposed collaboration.
Any requested deviations
from standard procedures must be explained in the individual’s animal use
protocol and approved / acknowledged by the Core Laboratory’s Director. Note: Protocol forms have a
section for sign-off by Core Laboratory’s Director.
Investigators must provide their
approved animal use protocol to the Core Laboratory’s Director at the time that
use of the Core Laboratory is being planned and arranged. The Core Laboratory Director will not authorize a study to begin until
the animal use protocol has been approved by the IACUC.
In approving a study to begin in the Core Laboratory, the Core
Laboratory’s Director assumes full responsibility for the well being of the
animals, while they are in the Core Laboratory or under the Core Laboratory’s
control.
If an Investigator or
his/her personnel will perform procedures using lab equipment, supplies, and
protocols within the Core Laboratory, then the Investigator is completely
responsible for those animals AND must include a complete detailed description
of the procedures they will perform in their own animal use protocol. Even if, they are following
standard protocols developed in the Core Laboratory, these must be included
fully in the Investigator’s animal use protocol, so that it is clearly
understood how the procedures will be performed. In this case, the Investigator is not really
using the Core Laboratory, but using shared equipment.
In cases where a Core Laboratory involves maintenance and breeding of
shared animal colonies, the Core Laboratory is directly responsible for those
animals and those animals will be considered to be on the Core Laboratory’s
animal use protocol. When specific
animals are transferred to an Investigator’s experimental protocol, they are
transferred to the Investigator’s animal use protocol and become that Investigator’s
responsibility. If the Core Laboratory conducts
some of the experimental procedures for the Investigator, that activity and the
service arrangement must be included (described) in that investigator’s approved
animal use protocol (which as previously noted must be signed by the Core’s
Director before it is submitted to the IACUC for review).
Approved: June 24, 2009
Reviewed and Reapproved:
6/15/2011, 2/18/2015