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Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata (IISER Kolkata) was established in 2006 by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (now Ministry of Education), Government of India. The IISER system was created to achieve excellence in the basic sciences.
Animal Facility of IISER Kolkata is one of the most important infrastructure facilities of the institute. The State of the Art, Animal Facility (SAF) is engaged in breeding and providing mice for experiments in both inter and intra institute R&D Programs. We also provide service based animal experiment facilities at SAF based on the need and requirement of students from other institutes and universities.
SAF is located near the main gate at the beautiful campus of IISER Kolkata, isolated from human occupancy & away from noise and pollution, providing an excellent environment for animal care and research. SAF is equipped ready to facilitate small animal experimentation with quarantine, breeding, holding, experimental and sick rooms for rodents and rabbits.
All Inter and Intra Institute Animal experimentation are conducted under the control of the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee of IISER K and usage of animals are monitored and regulated strictly as per the guidelines of Government of India (CCSEA).
The IISERK SAF is facilitated with modern equipment like Individually Ventilated caging (IVC) systems, Animal Cage Changing Station, Bio safety Cabinets, Biochemical Analyzer, In vivo Imaging & etc. It is also facilitated with a separate Molecular Biology Room for Genetic Analysis, Microbiology Room for Microbial Testing, ABSL and ABLS 2 facility, Zebrafish Facility, Bird Facility . In future SAF is planning to incorporate many other modern equipment and facilities aiming to provide a more efficient platform to the researcher for their conduct of experiments.
The procurement of animals from other sources is strictly controlled by animal facility management and users are required to adhere to the guidelines provided by CCSEA.
Requests for animals, Conduct of Experiments are channelized by the SAF management committee for smooth, efficient and transparent functioning. For conduct of any experiments by inter or intra institute Investigators, they have to mandatorily obtain approval of the IAEC( Institutional Animal Ethical Committee) before initiating any experiments.
SAF management strictly follows the procedure of documentation and record keeping for the convenience of the researchers and future access to necessary information.
The facility is registered with the CCSEA (Reg.No.1385/GO/ReBi/S/10/CPCSEA). Animal Facility , IISER KOLKATA also provides other research opportunities in collaboration with the Department of Biological Sciences IISER KOLKATA such as Flow cytometry, Confocal imaging and other high end imaging tools, Real Time PCR, Sequencing and other advanced tools and equipments.
| Sl. No. | Species | Strains |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mice | Wild type strain: C57BL/6 and BALB/c Knockout strain: CD40L, CD40, Ifit 2 and P2NOS (in the background of C57BL/6) Nude Mice (in the background of BALB/c) |
| 2 | Rat | Wistar Albino Rats |
| 3 | Rabbit | Not Available |
| 4 | Fish | Zebrafish |
| 5 | Bird | Chicken |
Prof. Jayasri Das Sarma's lab focusses on the Neurovirology, Neuroimmunology and Cancer Lab group leaded by Prof. Jayasri Das Sarma. The lab is involved in studying the neuroinflammation induced by murine-β-coronavirus: Mouse Hepatitis Virus (MHV) (a prototype of ꞵ-coronavirus that affects mice) can provide insights into the central neuropathobiology of long-term COVID-19 in humans.
One of her research focuses on understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms of murine β-coronavirus (β-CoV) induced neuro-inflammation (neuro-COVID), which mimics certain neuropathological and clinical features of the human neurological demyelinating disease Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Murine-CoV (m-CoV) infection in mice is the best-explored experimental animal model for studying respiratory, enteric, hepatic, as well as neurological illness due to their differential organ tropism, akin to the differential tropism displayed by different strains of human-CoVs (H-CoVs). Since exploring these mechanisms in humans is difficult, generating an animal model is necessary to determine the genomic control of pathogenic properties and the underlying mechanism to design the therapeutic targets. In this context, we are utilizing our extensive experience of developing a battery of recombinant strains by adopting reverse genetics tools and targeted RNA recombination that demonstrated that the Spike protein (virus-host attachment protein) is a major determinant of pathogenic properties associated with CoVs in the mouse model. Considerable time has been spent understanding the m-CoV, focusing on key mechanisms underlying infection, viral spread, host immune responses, and related pathogenesis. Our research revealed that MHV-A59, a representative murine β-coronavirus, induces meningoencephalomyelitis with optic neuritis during the acute phase of infection and leads to chronic progressive demyelination and optic nerve demyelination in the chronic stage. These characteristics closely resemble the central features of the human neurological disorder, Multiple Sclerosis (MS). While her lab focuses on multiple aspects of Neurovirology and Neuroimmunology induced by Murine-β-coronavirus, it also focuses on establishing gynecological cancer models. Syngeneic Ovarian cancer model was established in C57BL/6 WT mice for studying the tumor suppressing role of Connexin43 in vivo. Cervical cancer model is also established in Nude mice to study the anti-cancer effect of Methanolic Neem Bark extract against human cancer cells HeLa and ME-180 cells.
The main domains of animal research work in her lab include:
For more details please visit the lab website link: https://www.iiserkol.ac.in/%7Edassarmaj/
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