All research and teaching activities including vertebrate animals at the Orbeli Institute of Physiology must receive approval from the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) before initiation of the activity. Principal investigator (PI) or designated researcher must prepare and submit a protocol once the need to use animal subjects is determined. The PI or designated researcher will login to the IACUC Online Protocols system to create a new protocol. The PI or designated researcher has sole responsibility for the content of the protocol and is the only person that may submit the completed protocol.
Information required for completing a protocol
– Project overview – “Layman summary”- background, rationale, objectives, expected
results
– Rationale or animal use – consideration of 3Rs, species and strain justification
– Rational for number of animals
– Proposed statistic model for data
– Information about animals
– Description of the experimental procedure and study design
– Surgical procedures
– Analgesia and anesthesia
– Post-procedural care
– Criteria of excluding animals from the study
– Pain and distress according to severity categories
– Minimization of pain
– Humane endpoints
– Veterinarian care
– Euthanasia
– Participating personnel, training and experience