Model Animal Research Center of Nanjing University is located in the High-Tech Development Zone of Nanjing, covering an area of about 66,700 square meters. It was established in 2002 as a key project within the framework of the Tenth Five-year Plan of China for Scientific Breakthrough, with an initial investment of 50 million yuan. The center is equipped with a state-of-art animal facility, also functioning as the National Resource Center for Mutant Mice.

The center also houses the Ministry of Education (MOE) Key Laboratory of Model Animal for Disease Study. Approved and initiated in April 2008, the key laboratory passed its start-up inspection by MOE in May of the ensuing year. Following the completion of the first-phase construction in 2005, the current establishment includes a 8000-squaremeter building that is the home of more than a dozen research laboratories, administration offices, a power distribution center and a mouse facility that can accommodate more than 30,000 SPF-level mouse cages. As a research base also capable of mutant mice generation and analysis, the center also boasts a transgenic core and a phenotypic analysis core. The former operates with four sets of micro-injection systems and a high-end stem cell manipulation module; the latter is equipped with a laser scanning confocal microscope, a multi-functional animal monitoring system, a high-resolution ultrasound animal imaging system, an in vivo optical imaging system, and a full set of conventional molecular biology equipment. The total value of equipment occupying these two cores is estimated to worth more than 40 million yuan.