VRC Home

Research Laboratories
Laboratory Animal Medicine
Srinivas S. Rao D.V.M., Ph.D, M.B.A., Diplomate, ACVP

Laboratory Animal Medicine, VRC
Srinivas S. Rao, D.V.M., Ph.D., MBA, Diplomate, ACVP
301-594-8465
Address: VRC, NIH
40 Convent Dr., Room 1407
Bethesda, MD 20892-3015

Laboratory Personnel:
Dr. Srinivas S. Rao, Chief, Laboratory Animal Medicine. Ph. 301-594-8465. srao1@mail.nih.gov
Vi Dang, Animal Resources Program Coordinator. Ph. 301-594-8464. vidang@mail.nih.gov

Laboratory Animal Medicine Program provides all aspects of oversight and programmatic assistance to support teaching, training and research involving laboratory animals. The Program is fully AAALAC accredited an d adheres to the following of the Federal regulations as published in the Animal Welfare Act (AWA); the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (Guide); the Public Health Service Policy; and the U.S. Government Principles Regarding the Care and Use of Animals and NIH Manual 3040-2. Dr. Rao also serves as the Animal Program Director of VRC, NIH and helps coordinate the laboratory animal activities with the policies of NIH including Office of Animal Care and Use (OACU).

In assuring that the letter and the spirit of these regulatory requirements are met, the LAM provides a contemporary program that includes:

Veterinary Medical Care

• State-of-the-art husbandry, veterinary care, and management support of our colony animals,
• Routine surveillance and quality assurance of vendor-and colony- produced animals
• Preventative medical care; surveillance, diagnosis, treatment and control of disease.
• Anesthesia and analgesia.
• Assistance with breeding colony development and maintenance
• Training of faculty and staff in the handling, humane care, and manipulation of research animals,
• Consultation, collaboration, and professional assistance in animal model development.
• Monitoring of in vivo maintained tumor and hybridoma tissues,
• Assisting in the review process of the Animal Care and Use Protocol development

Veterinary Technical Services

• The Veterinary Care Unit can provide technical services to support the research needs of individuals who use animal models.
• These services include: parenteral injection or oral administration of pharmaceutical agents and other experimental materials; blood and/or serum collection; surgical manipulations; anesthetic administration and other procedures as needed.
• For those who wish to perform the procedures themselves but are inexperienced, training in these techniques is available from the Veterinary Care Unit at no charge

Husbandry Technical Services

• provide a range of technical services including: mouse breeding management (mating, sex identification, weaning, pregnancy determination); mouse rederivation assistance
• autoclaved rodent caging and supplies
• Irradiation assistance to rodents and cells.
• housing facilities for infectious animals (restrictions apply)
• rodent isolators (limited space);
• quarantine services
• procedure rooms for animal manipulations
• special feeding and/or watering requests; and animal transportation.

Veterinary Pathology Consultation

Selected Publications

1. Jeffrey D. Hasday, Allen Garrison, Ishwar S. Singh, Theodore Standiford, Garrettson S. Ellis, Srinivas Rao, Ju-Ren He, Penny Rice, Mariah Frank, Simeon E. Goldblum, and Rose M. Viscardi.
   Febrile-Range Hyperthermia Augments Pulmonary Neutrophil Recruitment and Amplifies Pulmonary Oxygen Toxicity
   Am J Pathol. 2003 Jun;162(6):2005-17.
2. Viscardi RM, Kaplan J, Lovchik JC, He JR, Hester L, Rao S, Hasday JD.
   Characterization of a murine model of Ureaplasma urealyticum pneumonia.
   Infect Immun. 2002 Oct; 70(10):5721-9.
3. Vigneulle RM, Rao S, Fasano A, MacVittie TJ.
   Structural and functional alterations of the gastrointestinal tract following radiation-induced injury in the rhesus monkey.
   Dig Dis Sci. 2002 Jul;47(7):1480-91.
4. Reid W, Sadowska M, Denaro F, Rao S, Foulke J Jr, Hayes N, Jones O, Doodnauth D, Davis H, Sill A, O'Driscoll P, Huso D, Fouts T, Lewis G, Hill M, Kamin-Lewis R, Wei C, Ray P, Gallo RC, Reitz M, Bryant J.
   An HIV-1 transgenic rat that develops HIV-related pathology and immunologic dysfunction.
   Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2001 Jul 31;98(16):9271-6.
5. Reid WC, Carmichael KP, Srinivas S, Bryant JL.
   Pathologic changes associated with use of tribromoethanol (avertin) in the Sprague Dawley rat.
   Lab Anim Sci. 1999 Dec;49(6):665-7. No abstract available.
6. Bunnell JE, Trigiani ER, Srinivas SR, Dumler JS.
   Development and distribution of pathologic lesions are related to immune status and tissue deposition of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis agent-infected cells in a murine model system.
   J Infect Dis. 1999 Aug;180(2):546-50.
7. Navarro-Garcia F, Eslava C, Villaseca JM, Lopez-Revilla R, Czeczulin JR, Srinivas S, Nataro JP, Cravioto A.
   In vitro effects of a high-molecular-weight heat-labile enterotoxin from enteroaggregative Escherichia coli.
   Infect Immun. 1998 Jul;66(7):3149-54.
8. Elliott SJ, Srinivas S, Albert MJ, Alam K, Robins-Browne RM, Gunzburg ST, Mee BJ, Chang BJ.
   Characterization of the roles of hemolysin and other toxins in enteropathy caused by alpha-hemolytic Escherichia coli linked to human diarrhea.
   Infect Immun. 1998 May;66(5):2040-51.
9. Xu M, Kumar D, Srinivas S, Detolla LJ, Yu SF, Stass SA, Mixson AJ.
   Parenteral gene therapy with p53 inhibits human breast tumors in vivo through a bystander mechanism without evidence of toxicity.
   Hum Gene Ther. 1997 Jan 20;8(2):177-85.
10. DeTolla LJ, Srinivas S, Whitaker BR, Andrews C, Hecker B, Kane AS, Reimschuessel R.
    Guidelines for the Care and Use of Fish in Research.
    ILAR J. 1995;37(4):159-173. No abstract available.

Note: Srinivas S. Rao was previously S. Srinivas

Vi Dang reports to Dr. Rao and serves currently as the Animal Resources Program Coordinator. In addition to coordinating several activities of the LAM program, Mr. Dang also serves as the ACUC coordinator. He also is the Facility Manager of the LAM, VRC and helps in the oversight of the contract operating the LAM vivarium.