Animal Facility

Owner: Rachel

Our mice are housed in John Morgan (JM3) – Room 363.

1. PPE Requirements

Before entering Room 363: sterile gloves.

If opening cages, also: shoe covers, isolation gown, face mask, scrub cap (optional).

Remove all PPE before leaving.

2. Biosafety Cabinet Protocol

Always use the biosafety cabinet when opening cages to handle mice.

Before use: turn on the light and fan. During use: the alarm rings periodically — press the alarm button to silence it. After use: wipe down the surface with disinfectant, turn off the light and fan.

3. Transporting Mice to the Lab

Survival surgery: new/clean cages, covered with an isolation gown, water bottle flipped upside down to prevent flooding, use a cart for multiple cages.

Terminal surgery: food pails, max 2–3 mice per pail.

General: discard cages at the wash station when no longer needed; deactivate cage cards once a cage is no longer in use.

4. Breeding and Weaning Mice

IDs: >1000 typically denotes breeders; <1000 usually denotes pups.

Breeder cages: box the cage ID (e.g., C001); replace breeders every 6–8 months, sacrifice remaining pups as necessary.

Pregnancy/weaning: move other mice out of a pregnant female’s cage, return once pups are weaned. Submit cage card requests through POLARIS at least 2 business days ahead of the weaning date. Wean at 21 days, ear-tag, update the Cheng Lab Colony Sheet. If you don’t know which female is the mom, leave both in the cage. Check the colony regularly for new pups.

Post-weaning: label cage cards with breeder cage ID, mouse IDs, gender. Separate pups by gender. Max 5 mice/cage. Different litters of the same genotype can share a cage. Keep the lab at ~20 cages or fewer.

5. Experimental Use of Mice

Mice are used for experiments at 6–8 weeks. Use the colony sheet to select mice of the right age/genotype, mark them under “Notes” with the experiment name, keep the colony sheet current, and record mouse ID + cage card ID in the Mice Log Sheet once taken.