Axenic / Gnoto Facility of the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, Portugal

The Axenic / Gnoto Facility is part of the core animal facility of the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC) in Oeiras, Portugal. The IGC mouse facility is partitioned into 5 independent areas, each with a specific bio-containment level, including germ-free and strict SPF. The facility hosts about 50,000 mice that cover close to 100 different inbred strains, available to in-house and associated research groups and visiting scientists. Production and experimental areas are designed to serve active research in various fields of biology (development, neurobiology, infectious diseases, immunology, genetics, host-pathogen interaction, metabolism, and cancer).

The Axenic / Gnoto Facility is adapted for breeding and experimentation purposes. For axenic colony management and maintenance of stock animals, rigid Isolators, transfer chambers and containers are used and equipped with the Double Door Rapid Transfer Port (DPTE®), a user-friendly and safe connecting system for introducing and removing equipment and other materials to and from sterile isolators. To run experimental conditions in germ-free/gnotobiotic mice, the Airtight Sealed Positive Pressure Individually-Ventilated Cages technology is used. In this system, each cage is assembled with an individual HEPA-filter for air in flow ensuring a full sterile environment.

Several specific techniques have been validated in the facility: body weight and body temperature measurement, buccal swab, IP and IV injections, gavage, blood collection, feces collection, surgeries (vasectomy, and renal ischemia-reperfusion), OGTT (Glucose tolerance), ITT (Insulin tolerance), and solid tumour size measurement and follow-up.

Like other research facilities at the IGC, the Axenic / Gnoto Facility is available to scientists worldwide. Researchers who want to work with these mice can be temporarily hosted at the Institute’s laboratories if they wish to conduct their own experiments on site.