Harvard Digestive Diseases Center

• Overview
• Administrative Core
• Imaging Core
• Epithelial Cell Biology Core
• Proteomic Core
• Gnotobiotic Animal Models Core
• Lipidomics Core

Overview:

Provides gnotobiotic animal housing and assistance in the establishment
and evaluation of gnotobiotic animal models and models of inflammation.
Located at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Director: Lynn Bry, MD, PhD

Contact:
lbry@partners.org

Services:

• Maintenance of germfree mice
• Association of germfree mice with defined flora.
• Association/infection of germfree mice with BL-2 pathogens.

Equipment:

Available currently:

• Two double tier 3X2 foot positive pressure isolators for maintaining GF and specifically-associated mice (4 isolator bubbles total).
• Sterilization equipment.
• Aerobic/anaerobic culturing facility.

Coming online later in 2008:

• BL-2 infections/associations: negative pressure isolators.
  
• Double-tier 5X3 foot positive pressure isolators for breeding GF stocks

Fees:

BL-1 Isolator setup and breakdown:

• $200 isolator (HDDC investigators)
• $500/isolator (all others).

BL-1 Isolator maintenance and sterility checks:

• $25/week per isolator (HDDC)
• $75/week per isolator (all others).

Animal cage charges:

• Per diem cage rates charged by animal facility in which mice are housed – MCP for barrier/GF work; Children’s Hospital for BL-2.

Animal ordering costs/shipment:

• Mice are ordered through the animal facility in which they will be maintained (MCP/HMS or Children’s).
• Investigators will be charged for animal purchases and transport by the receiving animal facility.

Additional microbiological evaluation/quantitation:

• Priced per work required.

Animal necropsy/tissue harvest and processing for histology or microbiological assessment, etc.

• Priced per work required

© 2009 The President and Fellows of Harvard College.