Technology Overview

The new University rodent facility is a shared resource of the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) and the Life Science Research Unit (LSRU) and has been established to assist researchers in the development and analysis of various in vivo models including germ-free animals.

The facility offers space for 1200 mouse cages and 300 rat cages and consists of two breeding rooms, three surgery rooms and three behavioural rooms. Bedding, water and cages are sterilised by autoclaving and the feed is irradiated. A comprehensive health surveillance system is in place and microbiological and environmental parameters are constantly monitored to ensure the breeding of healthy rodents. The animals are hosted in a modern facility, ensuring the highest animal welfare possible by a culture of care. All personnel are experienced and regularly trained/certified by mandatory courses following the guidelines developed by the EU for a common education and training framework and recommendations of the FELASA (Federation of European Laboratory Science Experimentation). A designated veterinarian inspects regularly the animals and advises on a wide range of animal welfare topic.

The specific and opportunistic pathogen free (SOPF) breeding area has the capacity to house about 600 individually ventilated mouse cages and more than 100 different mouse lines can be maintained and bred there. The specific pathogen free (SPF) experimental area has the capacity to house 600 mouse and 300 rat cages dedicated to experimental studies on transgenic rodents, use of different viral vectors and monitoring of xenograft models.

Services Offered

Animal housing & Husbandry
SOPF breeding area and SPF experimental area
Germ-free unit
Humanized mice
Transgenesis in the mouse via CRISPR-Cas9 system

The facility also offers the possibility of running a broad number of experimental procedures, including behavioural tests, surgical procedures, humanised mice models and monitoring of the mice through non-invasive imaging technologies (bioluminescence imaging system).

LCSB Rodent Platform