# Vivarium Modernization with Digital Ventilated Cages to Enhance Research Capacity and Reproducibility, and Provide Cage Environment Monitoring for Improved Operational Efficiency and Animal Welfare

> **NIH NIH R24** · THOMAS JEFFERSON UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $400,000

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
We are seeking support to purchase and install an integrated digital ventilated cage system to
enhance operational efficacy and modernize and strengthen the research-supporting operations of an
existing, more than twenty-five-year-old shared-use ABSL3 facility. This FOA is timely, since the
addition of the integrated Digital Ventilated Cage (DVC®) system we are requesting would synergize
with our ongoing institutional strategic plan to modernize existing vivarium facilities, and have broad
benefits for the institutional research community. The static microisolator caging system currently in
use is suboptimal and antiquated and cannot meet the current or future needs of the large number of
investigators from different disciplines performing ABSL3 work with animals infected with SAR2-Covid,
SARS-Covid variants and other BL3 agents. The DVC® is a unique and revolutionary home-cage
monitoring system composed of a mix of electronics and software components to collect a set of
information directly from the home cage. We selected this system with the goals of 1) improving the
shared-use facility operational efficiency and 2) enhancing animal welfare management. Furthermore,
3) the unique detection system collects extrinsic environmental conditions
(temperature, humidity, noise and vibration, human intervention, etc.) in the home cages. These
factors are likely to have effects on experiments using animals and reporting them in publications as a
general practice could contribute to improved research quality (rigor and reproducibility). The
modernization of an outdated ABSL3 facility to a more secure one containing a state-of-the-art
integrated digital ventilated cage system in two animal housing rooms. This equipment modernization
will combine and potentially synergize with institutionally-funded modernization efforts slated to be
completed within the next six months – for example, the modernized animal housing caging system
will be located in rooms adjacent to and with direct access to a modernized BL3 suite for tissue
processing and specimen processing. Therefore, our proposed equipment modernization is a critical
step towards meeting the needs of current and future investigators from diverse disciplines using
rodent animal models for research involving an increasing number of BL3 pathogens.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10533591
- **Project number:** 1R24OD033726-01
- **Recipient organization:** THOMAS JEFFERSON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Theodore F Taraschi
- **Activity code:** R24 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $400,000
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-08-01 → 2023-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10533591

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10533591, Vivarium Modernization with Digital Ventilated Cages to Enhance Research Capacity and Reproducibility, and Provide Cage Environment Monitoring for Improved Operational Efficiency and Animal Welfare (1R24OD033726-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10533591. Licensed CC0.

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