Our Facilities

The ARC is approximately 125,000 sq ft of animal housing and procedural space in six facilities.  There are facilities designed to accommodate both large and small animal species.

The three main rodent barriers use individually ventilated caging with the newest technology for rodent health surveillance, environmental health monitoring, which is 3Rs compliant as it replaces the use of sentinel animals. We house approximately 22,000 mouse cages at any given time. In addition, we are continually striving to enhance animal welfare, for example, by utilizing tunnel handling and mouse preferred bedding substrate (Alpha-dri Plus). There are also specialized areas for research involving surgical, behavioral, and biohazardous studies (ABSL2 and ABSL3) studies.

The Gnotobiotic Research Animal Facility is now one of the largest and most successful academic gnotobiotic mouse facilities internationally.

The Carlson Large Animal Facility maintains USDA covered species, including swine cardiovascular models and nonhuman primate neurological models. To enhance animal welfare, we utilize nonhuman primate enclosures, which allow for a group housed, more naturalistic environment. Additionally, the facility has multiple imaging capabilities, such as MRI, CT, fluoroscopy, and ultrasound. The veterinary staff is highly involved in all surgical procedures.

Species in the program include: mice, rat, dog, swine, rabbit, zebrafish, macaque, marmoset, guinea pig, ferret, hamster, sheep, xenopus, and bird.