Programs

ORIP’s Division of Comparative Medicine supports a variety of resource and research centers that develop animal models of human biology and disease and provide them to biomedical researchers around the world. These centers develop, characterize, house, cryopreserve and distribute both wild type reference strains of animals as well as mutant strains.

Depositing animals with rare and useful mutations at repositories can protect them from loss due to disease or accident and lower the costs of maintaining them. Resources funded by the Division of Comparative Medicine ensure that the genetic backgrounds of wild type and mutant animals do not undergo dramatic changes over time and that the animals are free of specific pathogens, thus enhancing the reproducibility of experiments performed by investigators in different laboratories. Continuous research activities by the scientists at these resource sites generate new knowledge and enhance the overall value of the resources to the research community.

See the latest news, policies, education and training materials, and information about animals in research on the NIH Medical Research with Animals website.