Introduction to research facility of laboratory animal center, Daegu-Gyeongbuk Medical Innovation Foundation (DGMIF)

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Daegu-Gyeongbuk Medical Innovation Foundation (DGMIF) consists of four research facilities (new drug development center, medical device development center, laboratory animal center, and clinical drug manufacturing center). The laboratory animal center is a facility to support the development of new drugs and medical devices, and plays a key role in evaluating the efficacy and safety tests of new drugs and medical devices through the management of laboratory animals, production of animal disease model, biometric analysis, experimental animal resource management, and in-vivo tests. The laboratory animal center is advancing image analysis equipment and surgical techniques to support high-quality animal experiments requiring high technology, and is improving the welfare of experimental animals through professional animal management, health monitoring, IACUC approval, post approval monitoring, and veterinary care to achieve reliable research results. DGMIF LAC has facilities for rodents including mouse and rats, rabbits, dogs, pigs, and monkeys, and the rodent animal facility is using IVC and ISO-N cage system and areas are divided into four areas including species conservation area, small animal testing area, re-entry area for imaging analysis, and ABSL-2 area for infection tests using ABSL-2 level microorganism. For high-quality animal management, DGMIF LAC acquired ICLAS PEP (Performance evaluation program for diagnostic laboratories, International Council for Laboratory Animal Science) accredited for the first in South Korea in 2017, KESAF (Korean Excellent Laboratory Animal Facility) in 2016, and AAALAC (The Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care) International Full Accreditation in 2020. It is the only institution in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province that that has received these two accreditations. Since the operation of the animal facility in 2014, the number of laboratory animals has been steadily increasing. Furthermore, additional facility for mini-pigs was completely built. DGMIF LAC will play a major role in the evaluation of the effecacy tests for new drugs and medical devices through the maintenance and development of high-quality laboratory animals that comply with international standards.