NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s Inhalation Exposure Core features laboratory facilities supporting noncancer-related and cancer-related rodent species research in carcinogenesis models and carcinogen administration, principally through inhalation exposure.

Research Assistance

Our core gives researchers access to the following services:

• delivery of carcinogenic or toxic chemicals, infectious agents, and interventional compounds such as chemoprevention or anticancer drugs to rodent species using inhalation routes of exposure 
• support services to generate and sample controlled test atmospheres for exposure characterization studies and inhalation exposure in animals
• specialized handling, disposal, and necropsy services for animals exposed to highly toxic agents such as carcinogenic and hazardous materials

Specialized Animal Care

In addition to our unique inhalation exposure facilities, we provide researchers with the following specialized animal handling and housing facilities for the single or repeated administration of carcinogenic compounds:

• animal biosafety level 2 (BSL-2) and negative pressure isolator housing
• animal health monitoring
• segregated housing facilities with appropriate ventilation systems for health monitoring of animals that do not yet have a proven virus antibody–free status or that carry transplantable tumors that have not yet been tested for rodent viruses

Consultation

The Inhalation Exposure Core provides comprehensive consultation in the following areas:

• experimental animals in environmental health science research
• animal models of cancer
• methods of inhalation and other routes of exposure to carcinogens and toxicants
• generating and characterizing controlled test atmospheres for animal exposure studies, including the selection of sampling strategies and analytical methods for experimental animal exposure atmospheres

Inhalation Unit

The Inhalation Unit provides the following equipment and resources for animal studies:

• 27 dynamic stainless steel, glass, and Plexiglas^® Laskin-type inhalation exposure chambers, including four glove box–type units
• seven small Plexiglas^® exposure chambers used for head-only exposures
• 10 Teflon^™ or stainless steel nose-only exposure chamber units for rats, guinea pigs, and rabbits
• specialized glove box isolator housing for animals treated with carcinogens or infectious agents
• rooms used to house animals undergoing unique pulmonary exposures or quarantine
• completely equipped combustion furnaces (250 square feet) 
• a particle concentrator laboratory
• the following calibration facilities and sampling equipment with analytical chemistry capability:
  • two gas chromatographs
  • two ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometers
  • several ozone, sulfuric acid, and nitric acid analyzers
  • particle measurement equipment
  • specialized equipment for the generation of highly standardized gas, vapor, and particulate matter of different composition, including a cigarette-smoke generator (for both mainstream and side-stream smoke), as well as ecigarette and hookah water pipe generators

Animal Care and Exposure Unit

The Animal Care and Exposure Unit houses rodents in the following special areas:

• two separate rooms adjacent to the chamber area of the Inhalation Unit
• a nose-only exposure area
• a small double corridor barrier unit with three rooms for rodent housing under secure sun protection factor (SPF) conditions, which can also be used for long-term studies
• four BSL-2 rooms: two have a fixed fume hood, and two have three moveable biosafety cabinets; either can be assigned with local exhaust to work with infectious agents or human tumors transplanted into immunocompromised mice or as containment rooms for carcinogen treatment
• multiple containment rooms without local exhaust for carcinogen treatment
• two rooms with special equipment for the treatment and housing of immunocompromised animals, including nude mice and severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice
• specialized glove box–type isolator housing within the Inhalation Unit for animals treated with carcinogens or infectious agents, to accommodate overflow of BSL-2 experiments or for use in BSL-3 experiments
• a cage washer and cage cleaning area
• a necropsy room
• a treatment room