Updates at OLAW

The National Institutes of Health's Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW) has recently announced two staff changes. Axel Wolff, who has served as Director of the Division of Compliance Oversight since 2005, has been promoted to Deputy Director of OLAW. Brent Morse will replace Wolff as Acting Director of the Division of Compliance Oversight. Wolff has been involved with OLAW since 1999; Morse joined in 2006.

AAALAC Awardees

John Harkness will receive the 2017 Bennett J. Cohen Award from AAALAC, in recognition of “exceptional service and significant contributions in the promotion of animal care in research, testing, and educational programs.” Harkness, now a professor-emeritus at Mississippi State's College of Veterinary Medicine, had been the university's laboratory animal veterinarian since 1984. He received his veterinary medical degree from Michigan State University in 1968.

American Preclinical Services (APS), a preclinical contract research organization based in Minneapolis, MN, is also being recognized by AAALAC. Their development of the In-vitro Blood Loop Assay to replace the Canine NonAnticoagulated Venous Implant Model has earned them the 2017 AAALAC Global 3Rs Award for North America. The award will be presented at the National AALAS meeting this October.

Taconic on the move

Taconic Biosciences will be moving its corporate headquarters up-river from its current location in Hudson, NY to the Albany Health Sciences Campus in Rensselaer, NY. Thirty-five employees will join the existing staff in Rensselaer, while 28 will move to Taconic's primary operations facility in Germantown, NY.

Taconic has also announced a collaborative agreement with Dutch company Cergentis to take advantage of its Targeted Locus Amplification technology, which will be used to improve the ability of Taconic's Transgene Mapping Analysis service to determine the location of genes inserted into transgenic mouse lines via random pro-nuclear injection.

Acquiring Brains

Charles River has acquired Brains On-Line, an international CRO focused on developing treatments for central nervous system diseases, for approximately $21 million in cash. CEO James Foster commented, “The addition of Brains On-Line strategically expands Charles River's existing CNS capabilities.... In addition to enhancing our ability to support clients' early-stage drug research in this critical therapeutic area, Brains On-Line expands our geographic footprint. This increases the opportunity for clients to work side-by-side with Charles River's scientists, both in Europe and in the South San Francisco research hub.”

New options at IITRI

Chicago-based preclinical CRO IITRI has expanded its animal biosafety level 3 (ABSL-3) capacity to accommodate bioaerosol infections in nonhuman primates, including rhesus monkeys, African green monkeys, and marmosets. The facility is available for preclinical testing of vaccine and antiviral drug candidates for highly infectious diseases spread by pathogens in the air.

The company also now offers a pregnant mouse model of fetal Zika virus transmission for vaccine testing. The model was developed at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and published in Cell earlier this year. Lead author Justin Richner has since joined IITRI and will be directing all Zika transmission studies there.

TB research in Texas

The NIH has awarded a $4.4 million, five-year grant to Marie-Claire Gauduin at Texas Biomedical Research Institute and Chinnaswamy Jagannath of the McGovern Medical School at UTHealth in Houston to continue development of an improved tuberculosis vaccine. Currently, there is only one vaccine available to treat TB, Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG). The team's modified BCG vaccine has shown improved efficacy and duration in earlier research with mouse TB models. The new grant will support nonhuman primate testing, which will be conducted at the Southwest National Primate Research Center.

Careers Update

Gary Borkowski has been appointed Senior Director at AAALAC International, where he will oversee the organization's North American education and outreach program. He will also assist the Global Director with the organization's accreditation program.

Borkowski comes with thirty years of laboratory animal experience. He holds a veterinary medical degree from Iowa State University as well as a master's degree in laboratory animal medicine from the Pennsylvania State University. He has been involved with AAALAC since 1998; over the years, he has served terms as a member of the Council on Accreditation and has represented the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science on the AAALAC International Board of Trustees.

Borkowski commented in a press release, “For me, joining AAALAC as its Senior Director is a dream come true...and I am even more impressed today with the mission of AAALAC and its exceptional people than I was in 1998 when I first joined AAALAC as an ad hoc Consultant.”

He officially assumed his duties on August 28th.