OVERVIEW

The mission of the Animal Resources Center (ARC) is to provide a quality animal care program in support of research initiatives of St. Jude. To accomplish this mission, the ARC provides competent animal care and management personnel, technical support, and facilities and equipment to provide the highest quality of care. The ARC has held AAALAC International Accreditation since 1977 symbolizing its commitment to scientific validity, quality, accountability, and commitment to humane care.

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Man in scrubs by shelves

IMPACT

The ARC maintains 264K square feet of dedicated space for in vivo work and supports about 90 investigators across the institution. In addition to services and support of ongoing research efforts, the ARC manages all compliance and regulatory issues surrounding the care and use of model systems. St. Jude has the distinct advantage of housing every element of the personalized medicine pipeline, from patient sample acquisition to sequencing capabilities, to model development and preclinical testing. The ARC has been a key contributor to many of the discoveries at St. Jude, facilitating high density, highly subsidized, and well-controlled studies.

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We use immunodeficient animal models and human cell lines to test the antitumor activity of CAR T-cells. There are things I would not be able to do [in this space] if not for St. Jude resources, especially the Animal Resource Center.

 Giedre Krenciute, Assistant Member

 

Director

Harshan Pisharath photo

Harshan Pisharath, DVM, PhD

Director, Animal Resource Center
Harshan.pisharath@stjude.org