Paige Elyea, a team member in Dr. Melanie Graham’s lab, is constructing a structure designed to promote natural behaviors such as foraging, climbing, balancing, and social play—essential forms of behavioral enrichment that support the physical and psychological well-being of research animals.
The University of Minnesota’s program for animal care and use in research and teaching has received a renewal of full accreditation following an on-site review in the fall of 2024.
The University’s animal care and use programs received continued full accreditation from AAALAC International, a leading accreditor that promotes the humane treatment of animals in science. AAALAC’s November 21 accreditation letter recognized the University for providing and maintaining a quality program of laboratory animal care and use and commending the University’s documentation, its animal care supervisors and managers for conscientiousness, its animal care personnel for their knowledge and training, and its clean and well-managed facilities.
In keeping with federal regulation, all University projects involving animals are individually reviewed by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) to ensure that they are justified by their societal benefits and to minimize any animal pain or suffering. IACUC regularly inspects all facilities housing UMN animals.
AAALAC’s accreditation applies to the University’s Research Animal Resources (RAR) facilities, School of Medicine (including Duluth medical school campus), School of Dentistry, College of Pharmacy, School of Public Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, the Department of Psychology in the College of Liberal Arts, and The Hormel Institute.
Transformative Research Enabled by Accreditation
Having AAALAC’s accreditation ensures that the University can conduct impactful research and teaching initiatives that rely on the responsible use of animals. Nearly every medical treatment or diagnostic tool available to patients and their doctors today was developed with the help of animals in research.
For example, Dr. Melanie Graham, MPH, Ph.D., Professor of Surgery at the University of Minnesota, is leading groundbreaking research with animals that could transform treatments for diseases like muscular dystrophy and diabetes. Her team has successfully used cell therapy to replace missing proteins and developed strategies to eliminate the toxic drugs typically required to prevent immune rejection of transplanted cells. These studies bridge the gap between basic research and clinical application with promising findings to advance into clinical trials. This offers new hope for life-changing therapies that could benefit both humans and animals.
In parallel, Dr. Graham and her team have established an internationally recognized animal welfare program designed to improve animal well-being and reduce the number of animals used in biomedical research. This program, which was recognized in AAALAC’s accreditation letter, enhances the accuracy and quality of her research projects, contributing to the successful clinical translation of research findings. Strong research programs using animals, like Dr. Graham's, depend on substantial investment and reflect the collective commitment of students, caregivers, technicians, scientists, veterinarians, and regulatory experts throughout the University, all focused on prioritizing animal welfare and scientific excellence.
In another example of important research with animals, engineers and medical researchers at UMN Twin Cities recently proved the life-saving potential of long-term organ preservation at ultra-low temperatures, a technique that may allow for longer and safer organ preservation and thereby improve donor organ utilization, among many other positive effects. They did so by successfully transplanting a rewarmed kidney in a rat and restoring full kidney function using nanoparticles.
The University is a leader in transplantation and cryopreservation technologies, which have the potential to drive biomedical research forward by enhancing the effectiveness, availability, and accessibility of cell, tissue (i.e., organoids), and organ transplants. These advancements are crucial for improving health outcomes in diseases that impose a significant public health burden. To fully understand these technologies, their effects must often be studied in animal models, which provide critical insights into safety, efficacy, and long-term impacts that cannot yet be replicated in vitro or through other non-animal models.
The Raptor Center at the UMN College of Veterinary Medicine, whose animal-based research involves clinical learning and collecting samples from live animals, provides an additional example of how animals contribute to education and research. The Raptor Center is home to a veterinary hospital that provides treatment to over 1,000 injured, sick, and orphaned wild raptors each year with the goal of releasing them back to the wild and is world renowned for the development and advancement of raptor medicine, surgery, and rehabilitation.
Veterinarians at The Raptor Center utilize clinical research findings from the raptor hospital to provide evidence-based treatment recommendations for the veterinary community, both within the United States and internationally. These veterinarians recently partnered with board certified anesthesiologists at the College of Veterinary Medicine to complete two publications on the use of nerve blocks to aid in surgical pain control in barred owls.
Not only does every wild raptor patient provide the opportunity to learn and improve clinical medicine, but each bird provides a window into what is going on in the ecosystem they came from. Throughout The Raptor Center’s 50-year history, research projects have been conducted related to wildlife and ecosystem health, including topics such as lead poisoning, West Nile virus infection, environmental toxins like PFAS, and highly pathogenic avian influenza.
The Raptor Center is also home to a permanent collection of raptors that are unable to be released to the wild. These birds enthrall audiences throughout the state during Raptor Center educational programming, teaching the general public about the importance of raptors and how they can help protect them and their environment.
A Commitment to Ethical and Responsible Research
Over the past two years, the University’s Research and Innovation Office (RIO) has prioritized enhancements in animal care and use initiatives, including hiring a compliance veterinarian to support regulatory committees and investing in preclinical research infrastructure such as a new electronic management system and updated equipment. RIO has also helped revitalize Research Animal Resources (RAR) by stabilizing staffing, increasing salaries, and seeking feedback from staff and researchers, all while setting a long-term vision to establish RAR as a national leader in high-quality animal care and research support.
“The renewal of full AAALAC accreditation is an achievement that everyone involved in animal care and use at the University should take pride in and demonstrates our collaborative commitment to upholding the highest standards of humane and responsible animal welfare,” said Nathan Koewler, DVM, DACLAM, the University’s attending veterinarian. “It highlights both the University's and RIO's dedication to animal health and welfare, scientific integrity, and the safety of all personnel working in these facilities. It's a moment to celebrate, even as we continue striving for improvements in research facilities, animal health and care, and process refinements.”