Tail-Cuff Blood Pressure in Mice and Rats: Do It Right So Your Data Hold Up TL;DR Tail-cuff blood pressure can be fast, scalable, and reliable—when you treat it like physiology instead of a device demo. Most bad runs come from the same few issues: stress, poor tail perfusion, movement, and inconsistent...

Small Animal Surgical Instruments Checklist Your practical guide for mouse & rat survival surgery in vets and research Small animal survival surgery is won in the small things: tissue handling that doesn’t crush, cutting that stays clean, hemostasis that’s controlled, and a setup that stays consistent across people and across days. This guide...

What Kind of Mouse or Rat Temperature Monitoring Is Right for Your Work? TL;DR Mouse temperature is one of the easiest things to “handle” while quietly losing control. The main reason is simple: core temperature and surface (skin) temperature answer different questions. If you rely on only one, you get blind...

TL;DR This article explains how to choose an oxygen concentrator for small animal anesthesia and recovery. Sizing is more about flow demand and workflow, and less about animal size. It covers typical mouse/rat/rabbit flow ranges, why leaks and “spike” needs (flushes, induction, recovery) matter, and when 5 L/min vs 10...

12 Amazing Scientific Discoveries From Last Year   If you work with (or just nerd out on) mice, rats, zebrafish, flies, and the rest of the small-animal science universe, last year was a banner year for scientific discoveries. And not the “incremental pathway paper” kind of scientific discoveries—the jaw-drop kind: two-dad mice, woolly gene-edited...

In preclinical oncology, researchers face a familiar tension: how to capture reliable, longitudinal tumor data without relying on invasive procedures like biopsies or euthanasia.  These traditional methods often require larger animal cohorts, introduce variability, and provide only single-time-point insights, limiting understanding of tumor progression (Goyal et al., 2018). The new SkinScanner, a...

If you’re working in immunology, oncology, or wound healing, skin is more than just a surface. It can serve as a biologically meaningful read-out, revealing insights into inflammation, healing, drug responses, and more. This shift may feel new. Many researchers weren’t trained to interpret skin-imaging data or evaluate devices, so below...

How Smart Oxygen Blending Impact Rodent Anesthesia Rodent research plays a critical role in driving scientific and medical breakthroughs. But along with this responsibility comes another — ensuring that research is conducted ethically, humanely, and in line with the highest standards of animal care. At the heart of that commitment are the...

On February 7, 2025, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a sudden policy change to cap indirect cost reimbursements at 15% for all existing and new research grants. The decision sent shockwaves through the research community and prompted extensive and heated online discussions on the potential implications. Universities and research...

If one of your New Year’s Resolutions is to exercise more, you’re on the right track. Recent research with mice has uncovered numerous benefits of exercise, including flushing out brain toxins, reversing age-related changes in the brain, preventing DNA damage, reversing fat buildup, and more. Here are some of the...

The holidays can be a stressful time, but fortunately, new studies are bringing us closer to understanding all the underlying mechanisms of stress and anxiety, its effects on the body and brain, and new potential treatments. Effects of Stress It’s well known that stress has numerous negative physical and psychological effects, and...

While many of us are looking forward to a Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings, new studies show that fasting, not feasting, may be better for our health. The potential health benefits of fasting have long intrigued scientists, and new animal studies have shed light on how fasting impacts the...

As Halloween approaches, fear takes center stage in haunted houses, scary movies, and spooky stories. But fear isn’t just a seasonal thrill—it's a deeply ingrained response that scientists have been studying for decades. Mice and rats have become key subjects in fear research, helping us understand the science of fear...

A significant percentage of preclinical research is devoted to finding treatments or cures, but several recent studies with mice have gone beyond finding a cure for a specific disease or condition, venturing into the realm of enabling humans to age better and live longer. While numerous studies have pointed to general...

In the quest for better health and wellness, the foods we consume play a pivotal role. While the benefits of a balanced diet are widely recognized, recent advancements in animal research are uncovering intriguing insights into how certain foods may offer more than just basic nutrition. Pomegranates More than 6 million Americans...

Scientists are taking animal research to new heights—literally. Since 2014, researchers have been conducting various experiments with rodents in outer space aboard the International Space Station. Living organisms experience various changes in the environment of space, including to the bones, muscles, heart, and circulatory and immune systems. Given their genetic similarities to...

Animal studies provide invaluable insights into the senses of sight, hearing, and smell. By examining these senses in animals, researchers have made numerous important discoveries about the underlying mechanisms of sensory perception and what they reveal about human sensory experiences. Sight Optical Illusions Results from experiments on mice at the University of Tokyo...

Immunity is a complex area of research with wide-ranging applications in human health. From the discovery of the potentially immune-boosting properties of a common vitamin to the identification of a new connection between gender and immunity, the field of animal research has generated scientific discoveries providing valuable insights into immunity. Food...

Spring has arrived, and with it several new discoveries related to fertility and birth. Exploring the complexities of fertility and reproductive health has long been a focal point of scientific study, with researchers utilizing animal models to gain insights into the intricate mechanisms underlying fertility-related issues. From understanding the genetic processes...