Zhao Receives Research Core Revitalization Program Funding for Rodent Behavioral Testing Service

Xinyu ZhaoThe Waisman Center Rodent Behavioral Testing Service (BTS) is the only rodent behavioral testing core on UW-Madison campus. The overarching goal of the BTS is to provide a set of tools to UW-Madison investigators for comprehensively evaluating the behavioral phenotypes of mouse and rat models of developmental disabilities, disease, and biological function. This funding will go towards updating some resources so that user accessibility becomes more efficient, updating computers and resource-associated software to become fully compatible with the Windows 10 operating system, and replacing resources that are equipped with outdated software or that have had reported hardware malfunctions during recent usage periods.

The Research Core Revitalization Program is supported by an investment from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and with support from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). Awards range from $20,000 – $300,000.

The pilot program strengthens campus research core capacities by supporting the upgrade, replacement or duplication of heavily used shared research resources. Cores are unique spaces where researchers are exposed to new ideas, instrumentation, and services and where they can consult with technical experts to advance their research programs. Cores provide specialized equipment and expertise that benefit many individual research labs. These shared resources allow the university to support many investigators at once by maintaining and upgrading high-end instrumentation that would be cost-prohibitive for any single lab.  Each core supports dozens to hundreds of research programs.

For further information, click this link: https://research.wisc.edu/funding/research-core-revitalization/modernizing-6-key-resources-of-the-waisman-center-rodent-behavioral-testing-service/