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Equipment and facilities

The Laboratory Animal Service (LAS) occupies a gross floor area of 1,347 m2 distributed along two floors, with a current maximum capacity of 3,700 cages, extendible to 5,800.

It consists of 7 experimental areas that enable experimental procedures to be conducted under various biosafety – specific-pathogen free (SPF), conventional and biosafety level 2 (BSL2) – and microbiological conditions. In addition, it also has a preclinical imaging platform (PIP) with rodent-dedicated optical-, tomographic-, ultrasound- and positron-emission imaging teams.

  • Conventional Areas 1 and 2 (CNV). Distributed along two floors, these have a total of eight handing rooms for carrying out experimental procedures and surgical practicums (equipped with oxygen, vacuum and CO2 supplies, inhalation anaesthesia equipment, biosafety hood and surgical microscopes), and with five rooms housing mice and rats.
  • Quarantine areas (x2) and BLS2 (x2), each equipped with a housing room and a handling room. These rooms are equipped with modern micro-insulators and equipment for carrying out experimental procedures.
  • SPF barrier area for immunodeficient and immunocompetent mice.  This consists of two rooms equipped with absolute filters, access clothing, sterile access system (SAS) for the sterile facility entrance, steam autoclave with double door for sterilising food, absorbent materials, cages and accessories, and a water-sterilisation system. It also has handing rooms equipped with oxygen, vacuum and CO2 supplies and inhalation anaesthesia equipment.
  • Services and corridors area. This has a cleaning area with rack washers and feeding bottle washers, material decontamination SAS, autoclave, clean material storage, cage-preparation room and general storage.