The Core Facility for Aged Rodents, CFAR, has been a major feature of the University of Michigan Claude Pepper Center since its inception in 1989. CFAR serves the needs of Pepper Center investigators through four Specific Aims.
- CFAR will provide advice to all OAIC investigators, from student through faculty levels, in the use of rodents for research into the biology of aging and its role in late life disease.
- CFAR will support specialized colonies of mice particularly well suited for research on the biology of aging and its relationship to late-life disease. These include (a) genetically heterogeneous mice of the UM-HET3 stock; (b) calorically restricted UM-HET3 mice; and (c) mice of the long-lived Snell dwarf (dw/dw) stock, carrying the Pit1 dw mutation. Mice from these colonies will be provided to faculty members working on Pilot Studies Exploratory Core (PESC) and Research Career Development Core (RCDC) research projects, as well as to Geriatrics Center faculty members who wish to conduct pilot studies on mouse aging supported by other sources of NIA funds.
- CFAR funds will support the development of new animal models for specific purposes. In the first year, these will include a new four-way cross suitable for studies of late-life hearing loss.
Core Director:
