The Behavior Core is fully equipped for sterile rodent surgeries including an isoflurane vaporizer, a Zeiss operating microscope, heating pads, surgical instruments and instrument sterilizer in our facility.

In addition to surgical equipment, the core provides numerous instrumentation for behavioral assessments of multiple pain components, including the affective dimensions of pain and pain-suppressed behaviors.

Testing options for thermal & tactile sensitivities in mice and rats include: Thermal - hot water baths, hot/cold plate, and two Plantar Hargreaves apparatuses. Tactile - differential weight bearing assays, and either electronic or manual von Frey filaments with appropriate plastic chambers. We also now have a thermal place preference test.

Anxiety/Depression testing equipment for mice and rats include: an elevated plus-maze, tail-suspension, and forced swim chambers.

Coordination and activity tests to determine pain-suppressed behaviors: IITC Life Science Roto-Rod, running wheels, a Coulbourn TRU SCAN open field monitoring system, a DigiGait Imaging System for treadmill gait analysis.

Motivational state testing equipment for mice and rats include: Med Associates conditioned place preference/aversion chambers, NoldusCoy mechanical conflict-avoidance, operant chambers, and tub for Morris water maze experiments.

For learning and memory experiments, a Noldus-Ethovision Video Tracking equipment and software allows users to assess animal performance in a number of mazes as well as the novel object recognition test.

In addition to behavioral tests, we offer a wide expertise in a variety of related fields: optogenetics (TeleOpto system), blood collection for PK studies, colony management (breeding strategies, animal identification and tail snips) as well as genotyping services (NaOH or Proteinase-K purification and PCR or GoTaq PCR reactions).

Please visit our website for a full list of our capabilities.