Immunodeficient mice, like this one, need specialized care to ensure their health is not compromised. They are important for several research areas including immunology, infectious disease, cancer, and organ transplantation.  These particular mice are bred so that they lack a thymus gland, which reduces the number of T cells in…

Twirl is a rat within a training colony at a research facility.  Her job is to help researchers become comfortable around rats and to ensure that they have the skills to humanely handle rats.  Twirl's teacher spends time with her regularly to strengthen the human-animal bond making Twirl's role in…

Guinea pigs are an excellent model for studying human hearing mechanisms because of the similarities in both outer and inner ear structures. They are especially valuable in cochlear implant research because their cochleae are easily accessible and large enough to implant multiple commercially-available electrodes to aid in gathering data for…