Industry Workshop Information

Friday, April 5, 2024
10:15 a.m. PDT
Exploration Stage

Speaker: Tim Cook, MS, Product Expert, BIOPAC Systems, Inc.

Enhancing Long-term EEG Monitoring of Small Rodents: A Comprehensive Review of BIOPAC's EPOCH EEG System

This workshop will present an in-depth exploration of BIOPAC's cutting-edge wireless, implantable EPOCH EEG system, specifically designed for the long-term monitoring of small animal EEG activity. The system offers unparalleled advantages in terms of mobility and data transmission, allowing continuous, real-time monitoring for up to six months. We’ll discuss the hardware options available with the EPOCH EEG system and we will delve into the surgical implantation methodology, providing both manual and video instructional documentation. Sample data sets will be viewed, specifically in the context of seizure detection. Researchers in the field will find valuable insights to advance their studies in long-term monitoring of small rodent EEG.

Friday, April 5, 2024
10:15 a.m. PDT
Innovation Stage

Speaker: Sarah Burris, PhD, Scientific Affairs Manager, FujiFilm VisualSonics, Inc.

Why Stop There? The Vevo F2 LAZR-X, the Complete Solution for Whole Body, Multimodal In Vivo Imaging
The Vevo F2 LAZR-X represents a major advance in ultrasound and photoacoustic technology for preclinical research. With its high-resolution imaging, powerful quantification tools, and intuitive software interface, the Vevo F2 LAZR-X enables researchers to gain new insights into anatomy, physiology, and disease models. Whether you are engaged in cardiac, vascular, cancer, or other preclinical research, the Vevo F2 LAZR-X offers capabilities that can transform your imaging workflow. This presentation will highlight how the system can advance your research through its combination of superior image quality, intelligent automation, and analytical tools.

Friday, April 5, 2024
12:15 p.m. PDT
Innovation Stage

Speaker: Jami Burkhardt, RN, Application Specialist, Harvard Bioscience

Holistic Approaches for Physiological Research
Understanding physiological processes depends on integrative research approaches that translate molecular and cellular events into complex adaptations at the animal level. In this scenario, combined in vitro and in vivo experimental systems are crucial to elucidate the mechanisms underlying human diseases or the mode of action of drugs and therapies. Harvard Biosciences supports physiological research and mitigates laboratory challenges by assisting scientists in a broad spectrum of research needs. We furnish scientists with harmonized instrumentation and integrated solutions that cover the physiological research continuum.

Friday, April 5, 2024
12:15 p.m. PDT
Exploration Stage

Speaker: Chris Adams, Sales Manager, Columbus Instruments

In Vivo Innovations for Exercise, Social Behavior, and Metabolism
Columbus Instruments has returned to the glory days of cutting edge product design and rapid product evolution. Come learn about the new generation of Exer 3/6 treadmill; once thought unimprovable, has become even easier to use and maintain. And learn about the all new SHELL group-housed behavior and cognition assessment system (Social Home Environment for Laboratory Learning). Then, join us for the official launch of the latest generation of Oxymax-CLAMS featuring improvements in usability, experiment setup, new measurement parameters, biomarkers, and a new comprehensive software program for data collection, statistical and AI data analysis.

Friday, April 5, 2024
4:15 p.m. PDT
Exploration Stage

Speakers: Peter Hunter PhD, FRS, FRSNZ, Distinguished Professor, University of Auckland, New Zealand and Maryann Martone, PhD, Professor Emeritus, University of California, San Diego

SPARC as a FAIR Community Resource
The SPARC Portal has been developed primarily to support the needs of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) community in linking brainstem motor output, via sympathetic and parasympathetic nerve fibers, with the visceral organs, as well as the sensory fibers providing feedback to the control centers in the brainstem. In this session, we will highlight a few of the growing number of consortia and projects that utilize SPARC to propel their research. The SPARC data repository, knowledgebase, spatial mapping tools, organ scaffolds and computational simulations are also capable of supporting a wide range of other physiological systems, including the vasculature, lymphatics, and neuro-musculoskeletal systems.

Saturday, April 6, 2024
10:15 a.m. PDT
Innovation Stage

Speaker: Sadi Loai, PhD, Product Specialist, Scintica Instruments Inc.

Manifestation of Microvascular Dysfunction in a Rat Model of Diabetic Cardiomyopathy: Teasing Apart Sex-Dependent Differences with Multimodality Imaging
Microvascular dysfunction has been implicated as the primary hallmark of several cardiac and inflammatory diseases (e.g., diabetes, heart failure, kidney disease), affecting millions of people worldwide. The onset and progression of microvascular disease is driven by vascular inflammation and is characterized by impaired vasomodulation. The ability to noninvasively assess microvascular function is essential to assessing intact microvascular reactivity. In this session we will discuss the findings from a recent study which employed multimodality imaging (MRI, ultrasound, photoacoustic, laser Doppler) along with standardized clinical testing, with the purpose of understanding the progression of diabetic cardiomyopathy while teasing apart sex-dependent differences.

Saturday, April 6, 2024
10:15 a.m. PDT
Exploration Stage

Speaker: Daniela Oettler, PhD, Scientific Director North America, TSE Systems

How to Enhance Your In Vivo Research with TSE Systems Technology and Group Housing Solutions
In this presentation, we show how to use our solutions for rodents to monkeys housed individually or in groups, and how they benefit your research to produce reliable behavioral data. Home cage testing/group housing improves consistency and reliability of results, the welfare of animals and is cost effective. We offer complementary technologies to measure physiology (simple temperature, cardiovascular, EEG), activity and other behavioral and metabolic parameters. Our Stellar telemetry technology offers convenience with long transmission distance, flexible antenna placement, and data storage to memory (no data loss). Join us for an interactive session!

Saturday, April 6, 2024
12:15 p.m. PDT
Exploration Stage

Speaker: Clarisa Peer, MS, Executive Director, Marketing and General Manager, Alzet Osmotic Pumps

Still Injecting? Best Practices for Infusion Dosing in Physiology Studies
In animal studies, chronic dosing of test agents is commonly done by injection, gavage or adding to food or water. These methods are time consuming for us, stressful for the animals and may also introduce variability that can compromise results.

Join this workshop to hear about how to dose by infusion. Does molecular weight of your test agent matter? How do you get started? Learn about common infusion protocols in physiology studies, and inside tips and best practices to make your first infusion study, or your 100th, straightforward and successful.

Saturday, April 6, 2024
12:15 p.m. PDT
Innovation Stage

Speaker: Atul Walunj, DVM, MVSc, MS, Technical Resource Scientist, Kent Scientific

Non-Invasive Blood Pressure Measurement in Rodents: Considerations and Best Practices
In biomedical research, the accuracy of physiological measurements in anesthetized rodents is crucial for reliable results. While telemetry remains the gold standard for blood pressure measurement, non-invasive blood pressure (NIBP) has gained popularity over the last decade. However, inconsistency in procedural reporting may lead to differences in results between groups utilizing NIBP technology. Here, we discuss variables and considerations for NIBP measurements, including animal thermoregulation, tail tissue perfusion, and stress response. We will also discuss tips for best practices to reduce variables during NIBP data collection to ensure consistent, replicable data.

Saturday, April 6, 2024
4:15 p.m. PDT
Exploration Stage

Speakers: Sridhar Radhakrishnan, PhD, Senior Scientist, Research Diets and Dushyant Kshatriya, PhD, Project Manager and Scientist, Research Diets

Laboratory Animal Diets: An Important, but Often Neglected Variable That Critically Impacts In Vivo Research
Diet has a profound effect on the rodent phenotype and the gut microbiome and is a variable that is commonly overlooked especially by those not trained in nutrition. It is very common to find that the diet is not well-defined in the methods sections of publications and this limits reproducibility of studies. This workshop will discuss the different types of diets available to researchers, critical factors present in diets that can influence study outcomes, and why choosing mismatched control and experimental diets can confound data interpretation. We will also briefly introduce dietary approaches to model obesity and metabolic disease (including MASH – Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatohepatitis) in rodents.

Saturday, April 6, 2024
4:15 p.m. PDT
Innovation Stage

Speakers: David Nickerson, PhD, Senior Research Fellow University of Auckland, New Zealand; Richard Christie, PhD Senior Software Development Specialist, Bioengineering Insitute, University of Auckland, New Zealand; Sue Tappan, PhD, SPARC DRC Communications, Rock Maple Science; and Bhavesh Patel, PhD, Associate Research Professor, FAIR Data Innovations Hub, California Medical Innovations Institute

Using SPARC to Ignite the Power of FAIR Data
Tappan and Patel introduce this session with methods and tools for transforming laboratory practices to support FAIR data production. Then, Nickerson and Christie demonstrate how this FAIR data can be enriched via spatial mapping to 3D anatomical organ scaffolds. Using SPARC tools and resources, we will demonstrate how these workflows result in the creation of integrative computational models suitable for composition into “digital twin” style simulation models. The session concludes with the production of a FAIR dataset suitable for publication to the SPARC Portal demonstrating reproducibility of the integrative computational model.