Vivarium Services and Animal Care

Lawson Health Research Institute’s Vivarium facilities support animal research on a fee-for-service basis.

Services

The service offers scientist access to animal research facilities at three sites and includes the provision of a wide spectrum of animal species and specialized equipment. This includes operating rooms, anaesthesia and diagnostics. Vivarium staff members ensure all animals receive expert care, including feed, bedding, animal room care and environmental enrichment suitable for each species.

Additional services such as genotype tissue collection and tagging, genotyping, anesthetics, surgeries, performing inbred or outcross breeding programs, urine glucose testing as well as other procedures can be booked with experienced and knowledgeable technicians for standard rent-a-tech fees.  

Genotyping

Genotyping is the process used to determine whether specimens have carried a specific gene by examining DNA sequence. A crucial research process, Lawson offers city-wide genotyping services from the Victoria Research Laboratory (VRL) at Victoria Hospital, London Health Sciences Centre.

The service offers tissue pick-ups twice per week for both long-term commitments and short-term cases when a lab is temporarily short-staffed and/or overloaded with other responsibilities. The tissue sample is processed by a dedicated technician in a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) room. Results are run on a gel for visualization and this information is given back to the lab in the form of an excel spread sheet delivered by email.

Contact

For pricing and availability, contact @email with the details of your request. A site supervisor will respond within two business days.