Equipment
- 200 m2 (2150 square feet) laboratory
- Laboratory with +4°C fridges (n=9) and -20°C (n=4), -86°C freezers (n=3)
- Extractor hood (XPX 15.203) for toxic compounds (Midilabor)
- 8 protected animal units (Charles River)
- 6 animal scales (Ohaus Adventurer Pro)
- 5 high-precision scales (Denver, Mettler Toledo)
- pH meter (Inolab ph730)
- Gas anesthesia (Canwell)
- 3 stereo zoom dissecting microscopes (Wild Heerburg)
- 3 dissecting microscopes (Nikon)
- 1 Stereotaxic apparatus
- Animal facilities for injection/perfusion of radioactive tracers
- 20 automatic infusers (Razel, kdScientific)
- Cardiac telemetry equipment (Data Sciences International)
- 3 nitrogen canisters (Taylor Wharton)
- Refrigerated and standard centrifuges (Sigma, Eppendorf)
- Ultracentrifuge (Beckman Coulter Optima TLX)
- 3H/14C Liquid Scintillation Counter (Perkin Elmer)
- Microplate spectrophotometer Powerwave HT (Bioteck )
- Fluoroskan Ascent microplate fluorometer (Labsystems)
- Software for management/analysis of raw data (Excel, Prism)
- Software for lipoprotein kinetic analysis (SAAMII)
- Software for telemetric analysis (PONEMA)
Experiments performed by the laboratory
- Chronic and acute treatment: PO, IP, IM, IV, intracerebral injections and oral administration
- Injection or infusion of radiolabelled compounds (14C, 3H)
- Administration of compounds or food supplements in water or food
- Blood collection and sampling (cardiac puncture, tail vein or artery, cheek vein, retroorbital sinus, heart puncture, portal vein, posterior vena cava, etc.)
- organ and tissue collection
- Microsurgery (vein and artery catheter implantation, peritoneal cavity implantation, telemetric transmitter implantation, etc.)
- Infusion: catheter implantation in a tail, femoral, portal or jugular vein (long-term infusion)
- Monitoring animal body weight, food intake, water intake, survival rate, health status, randomization or screening according to body weight, insulinemia, glycemia, etc.
- Monitoring of food consumption, support/monitoring of animals in metabolic cages
- Removal of tissues for “ex-vivo” tests: preparation of muscles, adipocytes, etc.
- Production of tissues for histology
- Fecal and urine collection
- Blood sampling for PK/PD studies
Place of these experiments in drug development
- Evaluation of drug activity in animal models of type 2 diabetes, obesity, dyslipidemia, cardiac complications
- Large-scale screening of compounds designed for obesity, type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular diseases
- Evaluation of adverse effects and/or additional benefits, tissue by tissue
- Study of drug combinations
- Development and characterization of custom-made experimental models
- Development and validation of custom-made methods
- Histological studies
All studies performed at Physiogenex are first submitted for ethical approval.