The Animal Resources Complex (ARC) is the centralized animal facility of North Carolina Central University (NCCU), comprised of approximately 8,000 ft2 on the lower floor of the Julius L. Chambers Biomedical Biotechnology Research Institute (BBRI). The ARC provides services to ensure the humane care and treatment of animal models of disease used in research and training at NCCU. The care and use of laboratory animals at NCCU is governed by mandates of the Public Health Service Policy on the Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (PHS Policy) and the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) for covered species.
The ARC exists to provide dependable services the care and use of rodent and zebrafish models consistent with AAALAC accreditation requirements. Development of the ARC was supported by funds from the State of NC, Glaxo-Welcome Inc., and the National Institutes of Health.

Zebrafish Core

This core has been established to allow all NCCU scientists the opportunity to extend their research projects to zebrafish, in order to better understand the function of their genes of interest. Zebrafish offer unique advantages for the study of human development and disease. As a vertebrate developmental model, zebrafish offers several advantages over rodent models, such as small genome size, short generation time (embryogenesis), external development allowing embryo manipulation, and optical transparency of embryos. The large-scale production of zebrafish embryos is also a great advantage over rodent models, as orders of magnitude greater embryos can be produced from transgenic founders. The similarity in zebrafish and human genomes and conservation of gene function between zebrafish and human, combined with the experimental advantages of zebrafish, make zebrafish an extremely attractive model system for the development of human disease models and for high through-put chemical modifier (i.e., drug, natural product, and environmental toxicant) screening.

Wild-type, mutant, and transgenic zebrafish lines are housed in tanks which recirculate water. Technical service is available to provide assistance to NCCU investigators interested in extending their research programs to zebrafish. The ARC is equipped with a station for microinjection of zebrafish embryos, with expansion to a second microinjection station planned soon. The core also contains an Olympus MVX10 Macro Zoom System microscope equipped with epifluorescence and either a color digital or high quality monochrome camera.