Animal House

• Maintenance of different species & strains of small laboratory animals (like rat, mice and rabbit). 
• Provide scientific and technical support to PI’s. 
• To facilitate therapeutic area specific animal models for drug discovery for various diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, other neurodegenerative and lifestyle disorders, inflammation, Cancer, Arthritis etc. 
• Acute, sub-acute and chronic toxicity studies. 
• To conduct regulatory studies for drug development as per OECD guidelines for animal experimentation. 
• Follow 3R’s concept in research: Reduction, Refinement and Replacement. 
• The chief mandate of the CAF is to breed and maintain different strains of mice and rats and supply them upon request to PI’s within the institute, depending upon the availability of animals.

Central Animal Facility segregated into different rooms equipped with air conditioning. Animal experimentation rooms 

• Quarantine rooms 
• Separate Animal Holding rooms (IVC cage system are used for keeping the animals to ensure uniform air supply and to avoid cross infection from one cage to another) 
• Washing area 
• Store rooms

1. The animal housing rooms are well equipped to maintain temperature of 22±2oC, along with relative humidity of 30-70%.
2. RO water purifiers for clean water supply. 
3. The facility is maintained at 250-350 lux illumination with 12 hr day/dark cycles and noise level of less than 75 dB with uninterrupted power supply.
4. The presence of horizontal autoclave for sterilization of animal house accessories. 
5. The facility is equipped with separate surgery room, necropsy room, neurobehavioral study lab and biochemistry lab. 
6. Separate area is demarked for disposal of animal carcass.
7. The deep freezer and incinerator for proper storage and disposal of animal carcass respectively.

• Mice- BALB/c, C57BL/6, Swiss Albino
• Rat- Sprague Dawley, Wistar
• Rabbit- New Zealand White

1. Central animal facility facilitates therapeutic area specific animal models for drug discovery for various diseases with major focus on neurodegenerative diseases. 
2. The facility is fully equipped for preclinical animal experimentation studies in the following research areas are being regularly carried out in or facility: 

•            Neurological studies 
•           Toxicity studies 
•           Studies on metabolic diseases
•           Dermatological studies
•           Animal Behavioural studies 
•           Pharmacological evaluation studies
•           Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics studies
•           Drug bioavailability studies
•           Reproductive studies 
•           Oncology studies 
•           Bio distribution studies (using LCMS, HPLC and IVIS)
•          Studies on drug delivery system

1. Animal house access is granted only to the authorized person permitted to perform the animal study.
2. All the persons authorized to enter the animal facility have to strictly adhere to the SOP.
3. All the persons entering the facility have to wear the PPE (Lab coat, face mask, head cap, shoe cover) all the time.
4. Animal Experimentation is allowed only after approval of protocol by IAEC and animal housing days will be according to IAEC approval. 
5. No change/deviation from approved animal study protocol is allowed without IAEC approval. 
6. Staff/Person involved in animal study should be trained and experimental procedures to be performed under the supervision of qualified person (Principal Investigator or Veterinarian). 
7. Regular monitoring by Investigator is to be done throughout the course of the study. 
8. Separate colour cage cards are used for monitoring of the health status of the animals: 

•                 Yellow colour cage cards: for rats 
•                 Pink colour cage cards: for mice 
•                 White colour cage cards: for animals under quarantine

• The CAF operates 24*7 on all the days including Sundays and holidays.
• Official working hours: 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM on all working days