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In Vivo Services

As a leading CRO for CNS drug development, Scantox is the premier provider for services with transgenic animals. We have more than 20 years of experience in generating, characterizing, and maintaining transgenic disease models and applying them for drug testing projects.

The mouse and rat models available for drug development in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), Huntington’s disease (HD), Niemann-Pick disease (NPC1), Gaucher disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), schizophrenia, frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), and other neurodegenerative and rare diseases allow the quantitative evaluation of compound interactions with amyloid, tau, SOD1, NPC1, TDP-43, GBA, inflammation related markers, mitochondrial deficiency and other pathologies.

AAALAC

The fully AAALAC-accredited animal facility in Austria provides all in vivo services from mouse and rat breeding, treatment, behavioral analyses, tissue sampling to delivering study reports that contain all experimental details. Animals are housed under SPF conditions in IVC systems with regular health monitoring. Our approach is based on a sequence of procedural building blocks that allow customization of any service request according to your specific needs. You have the option to select any entry point and exit point in our workflow.

Animal Facility Workflow
Custom-tailored research services for your specific needs

Animal Facility Workflow

Take advantage of the large assortment of rodent strains available at Scantox, provide your own animals or arrange an external shipment to the Scantox animal facility. Beside breeding, we also offer aging of animals, treatments, implantations, in vivo tissue collection, behavioral tests, and tissue sampling. In order to maximize the information obtained per tissue sample, we also offer in-house histological and biochemical analyses.

We provide fast in-house processing by experienced and well-trained staff, and work with highly reliable shipping companies to guarantee safe transfer of your valuable animals and samples.

The biobank can provide samples (brain tissue, CSF, organs, etc.) of our animal models for analyses in your laboratory.

Just discuss your requirements with us, and we take care of your mice and rat breeding needs. Ship your own rodent model to us or decide for one of our life stock rodent models. Upon request we breed as many rodents as needed for your experiments. Once breeding is completed animals can be aged in house as long as demanded. Afterwards, animals can either be shipped to you or be used in-house for studies according to your study needs.

Animal breeding and maintenance is performed by our trained animal keepers. Health monitoring is continuously performed by our in-house veterinarians.

breeding plus aging

Our expertise covers a wide range of treatment techniques in mice and rats that include the following routes but are not limited to them:

Treatment routes

  • Intraperitoneal
  • Intravenous
  • Subcutaneous
  • Intranasal
  • Oral (Gavage, via food pellets or drinking water)
  • Intramuscular
  • Intradermal
  • Intratracheal

Anesthesia / Surgeries

  • Implantation of osmotic pumps
  • Stereotactic injections into hippocampus, cortex, ventricle, striatum or almost any other brain region to inject:
    • Drugs
    • Test items
    • Toxins
    • Viral vectors (BSL2)
animal treatment
Staining Techniques and Applications

We routinely perform in vivo sampling of different mouse and rat samples and tissue. Can’t find what you are looking for? We are constantly establishing new methods and would be glad to develop new methods according to your requirements.

  • Feaces
  • Urine
  • Fur
  • Dander
  • Mouth swabs
  • Blood
    • Vena mandibularis bleeding
    • Tail vein bleeding
    • Cardiac puncture (terminal)
    • Tail vein bleeding for immediate glucose measurements
in vivo sampling

We offer a wide range of behavioral tests for various indications. Most tests are evaluated using rater-independent digital animal tracking systems. Can’t find what you are looking for? We are constantly establishing new tests and would be glad to develop tests according to your requirements.

  • General health tests: Irwin test, Open field test, Nest building test, Poke hole test, Ultrasonic vocalization, Cylinder test
  • Cognitive tests: Morris water maze test, Contextual fear Conditioning test, Passive avoidance test, Two choice swim test, Y-maze test, Novel object recognition test, Barnes maze test
  • Motor ability tests: RotaRod test, Pole test, Beam walk test, Pasta gnawing test, Wire hanging test, Grip strength test
  • Anxiety and depression tests: Elevated plus maze test, Marble burying test, Forced swim test
  • Social behavior tests: Three chamber social test, Autogrooming
  • Lateral lesion tests: Rotation test, Corridor test, Corner turn test

New behavioral tests are continuously developed and validated.

Please visit our pages for behavioral testing for more detailed information.

behavioral test

Our tissue sampling team is highly trained to dissect a plethora of different tissues from mice and rats. Different euthanasia and perfusion methods can be performed depending on your experimental needs. Can’t find what you are looking for? We are constantly establishing new methods and would be glad to develop dissections according to your requirements.

CNS/PNS + related:

  • Brain further dissected into:
    • Cortex (further specification e.g., entorhinal, perirhinal)
    • Hippocampus
    • Striatum
    • Substantia nigra
    • Amygdala
    • Cerebellum
    • Olfactory bulb
    • Thalamus
    • Hypothalamus
    • Midbrain
    • Pons/medulla
    • Special dissections using a brain matrix
  • CSF
  • Spinal cord (cervical, thoracic, lumbar)
  • Dorsal root ganglia (DRGs)
  • Meninges
  • Trigeminal nucleus caudalis
  • Nerves e.g., sciatic, tibialis, optic
  • Enteric nervous tissue

ORGANS:

  • Blood (whole blood, serum, plasma)
  • Intestines (duodenum, jejunum, ileum, cecum, colon, rectum)
  • Small intestines – swiss roll technique
  • Colon – swiss roll technique
  • Skeletal muscles (e.g., gastrocnemius, tibialis anterior, quadriceps, soleus)
  • Eyes – whole + parts of the eye (e.g., retina, lens, RPE)
  • Lymph nodes
  • Heart
  • Thymus
  • Diaphragm
  • Pancreas
  • Adipose tissue
  • Liver and gall bladder
  • Lung and trachea
  • Bones and bone marrow
  • Kidneys
  • Spleen
  • Skin
  • Glands (mammary, salivary, pituitary, …)
  • Tongue
  • Testis and rete testis
  • Ovary, oviduct, uterus, and vagina

SPECIFIC PROCEDURES:

  • Peritoneal lavage
  • Blood smear
  • In vivo CSF collection
tissue sampling
Statistical Data Analysis
  • Professional statistical data analysis (unbiased and representative) of behavioral tests and body measurements performed by our team of scientists and biostatisticians
  • Conscientious quality checks of measurements and results
Reporting of Experiments and Results
  • At the end of each study a full study report including all experimental procedures, qualitative and quantitative assessment of the results, as well a comprehensive statistical analysis will be provided
  • Constant updates throughout the study are provided if desired
data analysis

Animal experiments performed at our facility strictly adhere to Austrian and EU laws and regulations. All procedures are supervised by the Animal Care and Welfare Committee of Scantox and follow FELASA recommendations. The Scantox animal facility is fully accredited by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC).

Customer Feedback

As usual, you guys are on top of the game! I just want to thank you for your flexibility and awesome can-do attitude on this project. We really appreciate that you did your best to accommodate our timeline.

GROUP LEADER

Thank you for these reports and indeed the study was a complex and challenging one. It was a joy to work together to get things in place.

DIRECTOR TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE

I am very happy with the way the project has been performed, thanks for the timely execution.

DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH

Thank you very much for your collaboration on this study. We appreciate you and your team’s efforts. We look forward to working with you again in the future.

PRINCIPAL SCIENTIST

It was a true pleasure working with you and the entire Scantox team. You are a truly professional CRO and I will definitely recommend working with you!

CEO

It was a pleasure working with the Scantox team. I very much appreciated everyone’s responsiveness, attention to detail, quality of work, and keeping us updated.

Director of Biology

Ex Vivo Services

Scantox's expertise lies within the field of neurodegenerative diseases. We provide a state of the art research environment (AAALAC certified) for testing and evaluating new potential treatment approaches.
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In vitro Services

Scantox provides research services with numerous standardized cell culture systems including transgenic and non-transgenic cell lines, glial cells, primary chicken and rat peripheral and central nervous system neurons of different development stages and organotypic brain slices. New models are developed and validated on request.
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