Animal Facility

The Wistar Institute
3601 Spruce Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Tel: 215-898-3780

Facility Office Hours: 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday

Jan Erikson, Ph.D.
Scientific Director

Denise DiFrancesco, AS, RLAT, ILAM, CMAR
Facility Director

Marcie Houston-Leslie, LAT
Animal Health / Resource Coordinator

Introduction and Services

The Animal Facility is a shared resource that provides services in laboratory animal medicine and husbandry, as well as routine animal procurement, inventory, and care, for all Wistar scientists using animals in their research. The aim is to facilitate research through humane and efficient management of animal populations. The Animal Facility occupies a separate building adjacent to the Wistar Cancer Building. This four-floor building comprises 14,500 net sq. ft. with 29 rooms, and houses a Mouse Genetics Shared Facility, Bioluminescence Intra-vital imaging System (IVIS 200), state of the art bio-containment equipment, necropsy room, and other facilities. The Wistar Animal Care and Use Program is fully accredited by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International (AAALAC).

The Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) is responsible for overseeing the Animal Care and Use Program with regard to the maintenance of acceptable standards for the care, use, and treatment of animals, including regulatory compliance, investigator training, animal user training, post approval monitoring and technical support services. Two attending veterinarians oversee all animal health concerns.