# ICAL: Impact of Cannabinoids Across Lifespan: Animal Core

> **NIH NIH P50** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE · 2020 · $514,757

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY: ANIMAL CORE
The primary goal of the Animal Core is to provide a standardized, consistent supply of adolescent and
adult mice and rats of both sexes treated with THC or its vehicle for use by all ICAL projects. The
Core’s trained staff will schedule treatments, behavioral testing and tissue collection, and will
administer THC to animals at various ages, treatment regimens, and doses. After treatment and
washout, animals will be transferred to the labs of individual ICAL projects (Molecular, Synaptic, and
Behavioral). A second objective of the Animal Core is to facilitate consistent and well-validated
chemogenetic (DREADD) circuit-control methodologies in ICAL projects. The Core will provide space
and instrumentation (stereotaxic frame, virus injection equipment) for viral vector injection, and will
train laboratory staff on procedures and protocols to ensure consistent implementation. The core will
also maintain and distribute colonies of transgenic Cre driver mouse and rat lines, enabling
chemogenetic manipulations of targeted neuronal subtypes including dopamine (TH:Cre or DAT:Cre),
as described in individual projects. The third objective of the Animal Core is to establish and maintain
an annotated repository of biological material obtained from animals treated in adolescence or
adulthood with THC or vehicle. Biomaterial (brain peripheral tissues, fecal matter) from various ICAL
activities (pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics studies, phenotyping studies, projects) will be
collected, catalogued using a computerized bar-coding system and stored at -80oC. An annotated
database describing available samples and associated behavioral/physiological data will be created
and made available upon request to qualified researchers worldwide. This unique resource, the first in
its type, will (i) foster new collaborations between ICAL and diverse research groups around the world;
and (ii) open up adolescent cannabinoid research to study by groups unequipped to perform similar
treatment regimens themselves. In sum, the Animal Core will be essential to ICAL’s success and
broader impact. The Core will develop and implement fully characterized, consistent, and
pharmacologically relevant adolescent THC exposure regimens for use in each project, and
standardize use of chemogenetic methodologies across projects. The Core will also generate, catalog,
and distribute tissue from these valuable animals, opening this large and rich resource to scientists
around the world.
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## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9934171
- **Project number:** 5P50DA044118-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Stephen Vincent Mahler
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $514,757
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → —

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9934171

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9934171, ICAL: Impact of Cannabinoids Across Lifespan: Animal Core (5P50DA044118-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9934171. Licensed CC0.

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