# Engineered Mouse Sentinel System for Monitoring Animal Facilities

> **NIH NIH R41** · CELLGORTHMICS, INC · 2021 · $236,968

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
The primary mission of animal research facilities is assuring the health and well-being of its animals for ensuring
the integrity, reliability, and reproducibility of research results obtained by humanely using animals. To achieve
this, facilities deploy a variety of methods, including careful control of animal protocols, thoughtful engineering of
facilities, and diligent screening for infectious agents. Despite best efforts, these methods cannot
comprehensively protect animals from all possible vulnerabilities; therefore, robust monitoring tools are needed
to alert caretakers to problems in their facilities as highlighted in the NIH FOA PAR-19-266. The proposed work
will develop a new tool that monitors the health and well being of mice in animal facilities by embedding a genetic
reporting system into sentinel mice. Cellgorithmics, has invented new CRISPR-Cas9-based technologies that
enable time-resolved recording of physiological events to be made in the genomic DNA of sentinel mice. By
expressing the system in the mouse intestine, the recorded events are effectively “read” by rapid and inexpensive
sequencing of fecal DNA collected from sentinel mice. In two Aims, the proposal seeks to 1) build a base system
in mice that can be combined with triggering systems to make sentinels, and 2) calibrate the response of the
base system using doxycycline as a triggering event in a model sentinel. Completion of the proposed work in
Phase I will provide the basis for the engineering of triggering systems in Phase II to monitor physiological stress
responses, inflammation, and exposure to pathogens in new sentinel mice. This new tool will address critical
unmet needs of animal facilities by providing a way of monitoring stress and health conditions that directly affect
mice, but would otherwise go undetected.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10323482
- **Project number:** 1R41OD030206-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** CELLGORTHMICS, INC
- **Principal Investigator:** Ryan Clarke
- **Activity code:** R41 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $236,968
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-09-01 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10323482

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10323482, Engineered Mouse Sentinel System for Monitoring Animal Facilities (1R41OD030206-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10323482. Licensed CC0.

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