Facility Details

The Core is an integral component of Northwestern University’s Comprehensive Transplant Center (NUCTC) and has served all interested investigators in the NU community for more than 15 years with a wide variety of complex surgical procedures in rats and mice that may otherwise be difficult or time-consuming for those investigators without specialized skills, personnel and proper equipment. The core facility is dedicated to assist investigators with a central resource for creating murine models of tissue and organ transplantation that provide valuable and unique research opportunities for translational research from animal studies to human diseases.
Microsurgery Core Facility is located on the 11th floor of Tarry Research and Education Building (11-726/728/736/750B), occupying approximately 600 square feet lab space. The facility contains state-of-the-art operating microscopes including three Zeiss OPMI® operating microscopes with dual binocular heads and two Zeiss Stereo Zoom Microscopes (STEMI SV6) along with five aseptic surgical units that allow for daily routine performance of 10 vascularized transplant procedures and 20+ other surgical procedures (e.g. skin transplant, ischemia and reperfusion injury models). In addition, the facility holds a murine intensive care unit with a temperature controlled small animal intensive care chamber (Harvard Apparatus) that provides an appropriate environment for postoperative animals to recover from surgery as well as other separate areas designated for animal prep, autopsy and tissue sampling. Moreover, the core has been additional designated space as “a satellite facility” for immediate post-surgical animal care. For more information on this facility, please click here.