Max Rubner Laboratory (MRL)

The central research animal facilities of DIfE are housed in the Max-Rubner-Laboratory (MRL), where scientific questions of the different departments are dealt with using animal models. The experimental animals (mostly mice and rats) are kept under standardized conditions as far as the physical environment and the sanitation status are concerned in order to ensure that the status of the rodents has no effect on the test results. Animal stress during experiments is reduced to a minimum by using suitable housing and measurement techniques as well as through the attentive care of a highly motivated, well-trained staff.
Further assistance is given by animal welfare officers, veterinarians, and certified specialists in the field of laboratory animal science who advise the researchers in performing animal experiments. Especially skilled biological-laboratory assistants also have a part in successful experimental work.

In addition to animal rooms, the facility encompasses diagnostic laboratories and animal procedure laboratories.

Special techniques used in the MRL

• Indirect calorimetric measurements under different temperatures
• Examination of metabolism using metabolic cages
• Monitoring of food and water intake by a feeding monitoring system to assess quantitative and chronological food intake as well as food preference by using choice diets
• Measurement of body temperature and activity
• In vivo analysis of whole-body composition by x-ray (DEXA) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)
• Implantation of transponders and minipumps
• Blood pressure measurement
• Breeding and housing of rats under gnotobiotic conditions
• Breeding and genetic monitoring of special strains of mice
• Preparation and processing of specified diets