Gnotobiotic Animal Core Laboratory

The Pitt Gnotobiotic facility is a fee-for-service core that allows for experiments requiring germ-free (without bacteria, fungi, and exogenous viruses) and gnotobiotic (“known microbiota”) mice. Germ-free mice allow you to test the necessity and sufficiency of any microorganism or collection of organisms on a phenotype.

We are a BSL2 facility and can support many infectious pathogens. In addition, we can “humanize” the microbiota of mice, with transfers from patients, carry out tumor injections to test for tumor immunotherapy, and administer drugs, biologics, etc. Our facility provides all of the husbandry and upkeep for these mice, and assistance in gavaging or otherwise associating mice with microbiota is possible. We can also assist with experimental procedures within the bubbles at your request.

The facility allows for the use of commercially available strains of mice, C57BL/6 and Balb/c. We can also successfully carry-out bone marrow transplants into gnotobiotic mice to exchange the hematopoetic system.