Cores
Directed by Dr. Carol Elias and Dr. Malcolm Low the Administrative Core provides comprehensive scientific oversight of the Mouse Metabolic Phenotyping Center at Michigan and overall administrative assistance and leadership to the individual phenotyping cores that make up the Center and our growing collaborations.
Directed by, Dr. Lucy Kennedy, The Animal Care and Germ-Free Core plays a central role in the management of animal flow through the Center’s phenotyping cores from initial acquisition to final disposition of imported mice. The gateway for all phenotyping involving live mice, the Animal Care and Germ-Free Mouse Core provides mouse importation, quarantine, housing, veterinary care, clinical chemistry and histopathology services; as well as, host a germ-free mouse facility that interacts with the Microbiome core to produce and distribute germ-free and gnotobiotic mouse models.
The Metabolic, Physiological and Behavioral Phenotyping Core (also referred to as the Animal Phenotyping Core) is directed by Dr. Nathan Qi and performs a variety of in vivo physiological assessments encompassing glucose homeostasis (glucose tolerance, insulin tolerance, hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic, hypo- or hyperglycemic clamps), lipid metabolism (3H-triolein lipid tolerance, 3H-palmitate FA fluxes) energy homeostasis (indirect calorimetry by CLAMS, Promethion systems with ambient temperature or dietary challenge), ultradian hormone secretion (Culex platform for serial biological fluid sampling from free moving, unrestrained mice), behavioral measurements (learning/memory, locomotor activity, anxiety, depression, meal pattern analysis, operant conditioning).
Directed by Dr. Eva Feldman, Dr. David Antonetti and Dr. Jeffrey Hodgin, the Microvascular Complications Core provides a complete range of microvascular phenotyping of murine models of diabetes, obesity and metabolic disease; including validated, reproducible and standardized phenotyping of the 3 major microvascular complications: diabetic polyneuropathy (DPN), nephropathy (DN) and retinopathy (DR).
DPN advanced testing will include phenotyping of models exhibiting neuropathy such as measures of cell death and oxidative stress in dorsal root ganglion (DRG) and peripheral nerve.
DN advanced phenotyping will include measures of podocyte number, precise morphometric analysis of glomerular expansion, glomerular volume and tubulointerstitial fibrosis, EM morphometry of podocyte foot processes, immunohistochemical analysis of podocyte specific proteins, and glomerular isolation.
DR advanced testing will include measures of retinal vascular permeability, retinal cell death and non-lethal measures of retinal morphology using optical coherence tomography and visual function using optokinetic response.
Directed by Dr. Vincent Young, Dr. Patrick Schloss and Dr. Thomas Schmidt, The Microbiome Core serves the specific needs of investigators who are studying the role that complex microbial communities can play in shaping the overall metabolic state of their host; including, provide analytical tools to investigators to permit determination of the structure of the microbiome in mouse models of disease and assistance in the cultivation of microbes that will permit hypothesis testing in murine models including the germfree animals that are available in the Animal Care Core.