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Volume 50 Issue 8, August 2021

Automated recording in the home cage

If animal activity is your measure, you need a good baseline against which to compare any changes following an experimental invention. Home cages that can automatically track the motion of the mice within can provide such information. A new research article this month uses an automated home cage tracking device to establish baseline activity for three mouse strains, highlighting differences in locomotor patterns and underscoring the need to know the basics about the model you are working with.

See Fuochi et al.

IMAGE: Supertruper/Getty, Marina Spence. COVER DESIGN: Marina Spence.

Volume 50 Issue 8

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Editorial

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Comment

  • The SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic has significantly increased the demand for specific-pathogen-free (SPF) nonhuman primates (NHPs) for development of vaccines and therapeutics, thus straining the supply of these animals for biomedical research studies. Non-SPF animals, which are available in greater numbers and include well-characterized primate species, should be considered in lieu of limited SPF animals for appropriate research studies.

    • Miguel A. Contreras
    • Matthew E. Arnegard
    • Stephanie J. Murphy
    Comment
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Feature

  • Voluntary wheel running is a valuable metabolic intervention and well-established measure of physical activity in preclinical rodent models. Herein, we describe detailed assembly instructions and provide necessary resources for researchers to build their own running wheels from commercial-off-the-shelf parts and an open-source program at approximately a tenth of the cost of commercially-available options.

    • Jared Edwards
    • Brennan Olson
    • Daniel L. Marks
    Feature
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Technology Feature

  • After a genetic revolution in the 80s, mice overtook rats as the laboratory animal of choice for many researchers. But in recent years, the gene editing capabilities that had lagged a little for the larger rodent have been coming up to par with their murine cousins. Is a return to rats on the way?

    • Ellen P. Neff

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    Technology Feature
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