Hot Animal Holding
There is a dedicated hot animal holding room to temporarily house post-PET or post-SPECT animals for 5 half-lives of the radioactive tracers before the animals can be allowed to return to home housing rooms.
Anesthesia, Physiological Monitoring, and Gating
Every imaging modality is equipped with dedicated isoflurane vaporizers and various oxygen, nitrogen, or room air gas supplies for imaging. In addition, each imaging modality is equipped with physiological monitoring capabilities for electrocardiogram (ECG), respiration, and core body temperature. Each modality has dedicated core body temperature feedback-controlled body warmer with either body-warming pads or a warm air blower to maintain the core body temperature in the physiological range. Furthermore, MRI/MRS and Inveon PET/SPECT/CT systems have the capability for cardiac and/or respiratory-gated acquisition to eliminate motion artifacts.
Surgical Suites
Our core has a fully equipped surgical suite for rodent surgery and procedures. It is equipped with a Zeiss surgical microscope, a stereotactic apparatus, a rodent ventilator, surgical lights, an anesthesia machine, a body warmer and an infusion pump capable of infusion rates from 0.73 µL/hr (1 mL syringe) to 2100 mL/hr (60 mL syringe). The DLAR on site has a full operating room for large-animal operations. .
Animal Housing, Transfer, and Longitudinal Imaging
The DLAR on site can house BSL-1 and BSL-2 mice, rats, rabbits, and non-human primates for longitudinal imaging. The Animal Imaging Core staff can assist with animal transferring between DLAR facilities. While the animals are housed in Rangos DLAR for longitudinal imaging, DLAR staff will provide husbandry and vet services, whereas Animal Imaging Core staff will assist with monitoring and surrogate communication.