IMM ANIMAL FACILITIES
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Team
| Domingos Henrique, PhD | Head of the Unit | henrique@fm.ul.pt |
| Dolores Bonaparte | Facility Coordinator & Vet | doloresbf@fm.ul.pt |
| Alina Costa | Facility Manager | alinacosta@fm.ul.pt |
| Nuno Inácio | Animal Caretaker | nunoin@hotmail.com |
| José Vila-Chã | Animal Caretaker |
Infrastructures
The IMM has currently one small, conventional animal facility, and is building a new, larger barrier facility and a P3 facility.
The Conventional Facility hosts around 1200 mice,| and it is currently used at 100% of its capacity by the IMM researchers. All husbandry and manipulation procedures are performed according to high standards |of biocontainment and bioexclusion, in order to ensure the best possible conditions in terms of health and safety.
The new Barrier Facility is expected to be fully operational by the first quarter of 2009. With and area of 800m2, it will have the capacity to host around 15000 mice and rats, both in microisolators and individually ventilated cages.
The new animal quarters will include one Production facility, one Experimental Facility, one Quarantine, two Transitional Animal Rooms, one Surgical Suite, and two Procedure Rooms, available for both IMM and external researchers.
The new quarters will also include a 70m2 BSL III facility with two tissue culture rooms, and one animal room. The P3 facility will be available both for internal and external researchers.
Services
The new Animal Facility will provide both internal and external services for academia, pharma, biotech and other fields of research.
These services will range from animal hosting to more specific procedures such as:
-Colony management
-Experimental procedures
-Surgical Procedures
-In vivo imaging
-Assisted Reproduction Techniques, such as timed pregnancies, in vitro fertilization, embryo & cesarean derivation, and cryopreservation.
Education and Training
This Unit is highly committed to following the 3Rs principles – Replace, Reduce and Refine – for a conscious and responsible use of laboratory animals, while producing high quality science. For this reason, it aims to provide education, training, and guidance for researchers, according to the Portuguese law and the international recommendations for good practices and animal welfare.
Past Courses
Future Courses
Practical Procedures on Rodents (early 2009)
